Monschau, Red House

The Rotes Haus (Red House), home of a prosperous cloth-making merchant, Johann-Heinrich Scheibler, has been preserved with its 1700s interior decor, and is now a museum.

Its main showpiece is the magnificent three-story carved-oak staircase that took Italian artists three years to complete. Townspeople are proud the owner refused to sell the staircase to John D. Rockefeller.