Title: 
Observational gamma-ray astronomy: recent highlights and the path towards CTA

Abstract: 
The Fermi LAT as well as upgraded ground-based facilities like MAGIC, H.E.S.S. and VERITAS have in recent years ushered in an era of unprecedented discoveries in a broad range of fundamental topics for high-energy astrophysics; for the first time, continuous high-sensitivity coverage from the GeV to the TeV range allows for in-depth characterisation of the high- and very high energy emission properties of AGN out to redshifts corresponding to a substantial fraction oft he Hubble time. Within the Galaxy, a sizeable number of stellar remnants as well as the vicinity of the Galactic center have been closely scrutinized and tantalizing clues pointing towards fundamental acceleration processes have been obtained.
This talk aims to highlight the cornerstones of this success story, and at the same time to discuss a possible route to fully harvesting the potential of the Cherenkov Telescope Array in the rich observational environment provided by the neutrino telescopes, the SKA, and future space missions.