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Few American cities wear their contradictions as comfortably as Cincinnati. Perched on the northern bank of the Ohio River, it sits at a geographic and cultural crossroads: technically a Midwestern city, yet shaped by the German immigration waves of the nineteenth century, by its role as a gateway between North and South before and during the Civil War, and by an architectural ambition that left it with a skyline and a stock of Victorian neighbourhoods that still surprise first-time visitors. The hills that rise steeply from the riverfront are not incidental to the city's character; they created distinct communities, each with its own personality, that remain legible today.

The Over-the-Rhine district is where that German heritage is most densely concentrated. Its name is a direct reference to the Rhine River, coined by early settlers who crossed the Miami and Erie Canal to reach the neighbourhood, just as they might have crossed the Rhine back home. The canal is long gone, but the Italianate and Greek Revival architecture it once bordered survives in remarkable quantity, making Over-the-Rhine one of the largest intact urban historic districts in the United States. The neighbourhood has undergone considerable reinvestment in recent decades, and its streets now hold a mix of long-established residents, independent businesses, and a food and brewing culture that draws on the city's deep lager-brewing tradition.