Erfurt Old Town Guided Walking Tour

Benediktsplatz and the Krämerbrücke

The walk begins at the Eulenspiegel monument behind the Tourist Information on Benediktsplatz, a small square at the western end of the Krämerbrücke, the Merchants' Bridge. The bridge is the sight people search for first when planning a trip to Erfurt: about 120 metres long, built in stone in 1325 after its wooden predecessors burned, and lined on both sides with narrow half-timbered houses that are still lived in and used as workshops and shops for chocolate, pottery, puppets and Thuringian blue print fabric. It is the longest inhabited bridge in Europe, and from the street you would never know you were crossing the Gera river.

Your guide explains how the bridge grew out of the trade route between east and west, the Via Regia, and points out the Ägidienkirche at the eastern end, whose tower can be climbed for the best view of the bridge roofs. Allow about twenty minutes here, with time for photos from the riverbank below.

Fischmarkt and the Town Hall

A few steps from the bridge the Fischmarkt opens up, the old market square of Erfurt where fish was sold in the Middle Ages and where the city's wealth is written on the facades. The Town Hall was built between 1870 and 1875 in Gothic Revival style with a tall tower and a staircase hall painted with legends of Thuringia and scenes from the city's history; it is open on weekdays and worth a look inside after the tour. Beside it stand two of the finest Renaissance townhouses in Germany, the House of the Broad Hearth of 1584 and the House of the Red Ox, built by patrician families with ornate gables and carved window frames.

In the middle of the square the statue of a Roman warrior, the Erfurt Roland, has symbolised the city's market rights since 1591. The guide spends about fifteen minutes on the square decoding the houses and the city's rivalry with the archbishops of Mainz who ruled it for centuries.

The University District and the patrician houses

Erfurt's university was founded in 1379 and opened in 1392, making it one of the oldest in Germany, and the Old University quarter north of the Fischmarkt keeps its original college building, the Collegium Maius, with a late Gothic facade rebuilt after the war. Around it the Michaelisstrasse, once the main street of the medieval student town, is lined with Gothic and Renaissance houses, the Michaeliskirche where lectures were held, and the Old Synagogue, one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Europe with parts from the eleventh century, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The guide walks you through the quarter for about twenty-five minutes, explaining how dyers made Erfurt rich with woad, the blue plant that coloured Europe's cloth before indigo arrived, and how the patricians spent that wealth on the townhouses, courtyards and churches you pass. The Augustinian monastery, where one of Europe's most famous monks lived, is seen on the way.

Lanes of half-timbered houses and the city of spires

Between the University District and Domplatz the route follows lanes that look much as they did five hundred years ago: Erfurt escaped heavy war damage, so whole streets of half-timbered houses, stone merchant halls and hidden courtyards survive, and the city's nickname, the Thuringian Rome, comes from the church towers that rise above the roofs at every turn. The guide picks the most atmospheric lanes, such as the Waagegasse with its medieval warehouses and the Allerheiligenstrasse, and tells the stories of the guilds, the floods of the Gera and the fires that shaped the ground plan.

This is the part of any Erfurt old town guided tour where you understand why the city is on so many lists of the most beautiful medieval towns in Germany. About twenty minutes of walking bring you to the edge of the great square under the cathedral hill.

Domplatz, the Cathedral of St Mary and the Gloriosa bell

The walk ends on Domplatz, the vast square at the foot of the cathedral hill, where the Cathedral of St Mary and the church of St Severus stand side by side on a terrace reached by a monumental flight of seventy steps, the most photographed view in Erfurt. The cathedral grew from a church founded in 742 into the Gothic building you see, with a high choir of the 1350s set on huge vaulted substructures. In its central tower hangs the Gloriosa, cast in 1497 and weighing more than eleven tonnes, the largest free-swinging medieval bell in the world, famous for the purity of its tone; it rings only on major feast days.

The guide explains the cathedral from outside, including the Triangle Portal with its statues of the wise and foolish virgins, before saying goodbye after about two hours. Entry to the cathedral is not included but is usually free during opening hours, so you can go in afterwards.