BAMBERG'S nightwatchmen had extra duties to perform for the city's numerous breweries 100 years ago. They walked up and down the banks of the Regnitz bellowing out requests for the public not to urinate in the river as they would be "brewing in three days".

Townsfolk did as they were bid as back then beer was much-valued as the safest drink around and a lot more palatable than the water.

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Even today beer is still the liquid of choice in this part of Germany and with the Munich Oktoberfest just around the corner (September 17-October 3), beer consumption is about to hit dizzying new heights.

While the Oktoberfest comes and goes, in Bamberg - which is within striking distance of the Bavarian capital - it is pretty much beer time all year round. Within the city walls there are still nine breweries producing 60 different types of beer and a couple of breweries, such as F¤ssla, also offer accommodation, which means you don't even have to worry about finding your way back to your hotel after any overindulging.

Bamberg is in the part of northern Bavaria called Franconia, a tranquil landscape of spidery rural villages sitting between webs of wooded hills.

It was once the heart of the Holy Roman Empire and the emperors were keen to make sure their seats of power were appropriately splendid. Which is why Bamberg is disproportionately grand given its small size. It's also remarkably unspoiled, as Unesco recognised 18 years ago when it was designated a World Heritage Site.

The nightwatchmen still do their rounds (albeit as tourist guides) and 2,500 protected medieval buildings remain standing today, which is why the city was a location for scenes from this autumn's predicted blockbuster The Three Musketeers, with Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich.

Movies aside there's never been much swordplay here. The only aggression to have had much impact was the "beer war" in 1907 when the locals stopped buying beer from a cartel of breweries that tried to put up its prices.

The city is still divided along medieval lines with the palatial Imperial Residenz, the cathedral and the aristocrat district up on a hill overlooking the Regnitz river. It is here the Musketeers scenes were shot. The cathedral sits to one side of a giant cobbled square across from the Residenz and its adjoining rose garden, where the emperor would take a breather from endless beer-fuelled banqueting and gaze out from the balustrade across the rooftops.

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Most of those roofs belonged to the more humble dwellings on the other side of the river where ordinary folk went about their lives.
Wonky fishermen's houses still line the riverbanks.

It's now known as Little Venice and has become an extremely desirable place to live. The river crossing between the imperial and plebeian parts of the city is the most attractive bit of Bamberg. The Old Town Hall, blushing with frescos and frilly rococo balconies, squats on its own little island straddling the crossing. Its bridges buzz with a babble of languages from the city's international visitors and it is surrounded by a skirt of terraced cafes.

One of the key calls for beer pilgrims is in the narrow cobbled Dominikanerstrasse which is lined with half-timbered fa§ades and is within a stone's throw of the cathedral. Here, Schlenkerla is a very traditional brewery; its wood-panel rooms filled with heavy oak tables where men gather to smack their lips over rauchbier (smoked beer) a rich brew that tastes like a cross between Guinness and cured bacon.

If you don't like the first one the saying goes, keep going as the third one is great. If you do manage three you are unlikely to want to eat again for the rest of the day.
Over on the other side of the island, F¤ssla is if anything even more of a labyrinth of rooms and courtyards. The public rooms are completely permeated by the yeasty aroma emanating from the brewery at the back.

Upstairs at Fassla the accommodation is clean and modern and within easy reach, a big plus if you're quaffing the Bambergator which at 8.5 per cent is almost as strong as wine. A night on that and the only thing you'll be good for is crawling gratefully upstairs to bed, singing as you go.

THE KNOWLEDGE

Dertour (0207 290 1137/www.dertour.co.uk) offers three nights in Hotel Villa Geyersworth, Bamburg from £389pp (two sharing), B&B. Price includes return flights from Gatwick to Nuremberg with airberlin (www.airberlin.com) and return rail transfers from Nuremberg Airport to Bamberg. Fassla Brewery and Hotel (dialling from the UK: 0049 951 26516/www.faessla.de/en) offers doubles from £53 per night (two sharing), B&B. German National Tourist Office: www.germany.travel