Görlitz Old Town Guided Walking Tour

Obermarkt, the upper market square

The walk begins on the Obermarkt, the long upper market square that was laid out in the 13th century when Görlitz grew rich on the trade route between Leipzig and Breslau. Along its sides stand tall Baroque town houses with painted facades, and at the western end rises the Reichenbacher Turm, a fortified gate tower of the old city wall. Görlitz escaped war damage almost entirely, which is why the old town has thousands of listed buildings and why the squares look much as they did in the 18th century.

Our guide starts with a short history of the city, from the medieval cloth trade to the division of 1945 that put the eastern bank of the Neisse in Poland. You spend about 15 minutes here before walking along the square to the Holy Trinity Church; the square is also where the Christmas market and the summer festivals are held, so timing can change the atmosphere completely.

Holy Trinity Church, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche

At the eastern end of the Obermarkt stands the Holy Trinity Church, a former Franciscan monastery church begun in the 13th century whose slim tower rises above the roofs. Look at its clock: it is deliberately set seven minutes early, a reminder of a planned uprising of the cloth makers in 1527 that was betrayed, so the bells rang before the conspirators could gather. The church keeps late Gothic altars and a famous carved figure of Christ resting, but the walk looks at the building from outside.

Our guide tells the story of the monastery, how the Franciscans arrived in Görlitz and how the Reformation turned their church into the parish church of the square. From here the lane narrows and leads downhill into the Untermarkt, and this short passage between the two squares is one of the most photographed views in the city.

Untermarkt, the Schönhof and the Town Hall

The Untermarkt is smaller than the Obermarkt but richer, a square enclosed by merchant houses where the Görlitz cloth and woad traders once lived above their arcaded shops. The Schönhof on the corner, built in 1526, is the oldest Renaissance town house in Germany and now houses a museum of Silesian history. Opposite stands the Town Hall with its staircase, its tower and the two famous clocks of the 16th century, one of which shows the phases of the moon and has a face whose eyes appear to move.

The guide explains the arcade houses, the hall houses with their vaulted entrance halls built for trading wagons, and why the square has served so often as a film set. Around 25 minutes are spent on the Untermarkt, which also contains the Whispering Arch and the Biblical House, so this is the heart of the Görlitz old town tour.

The Biblical House and the Whispering Arch

On the Neißstraße just off the Untermarkt stands the Biblical House of 1570, a Renaissance town house whose facade is carved with sandstone reliefs of scenes from the Old and New Testament, from the creation to the resurrection. It was built for a merchant at a time when religious images on private houses were unusual, and the detail is remarkable: the guide helps you read the scenes panel by panel. The house is part of the Silesian museum complex, so you can return later to see the interior.

Back on the Untermarkt is the Whispering Arch, the Gothic entrance arch of a merchant house at number 22. Its curve carries sound so well that a whisper spoken into one end can be heard clearly at the other, several metres away, and our guide invites the group to try it. Children love this stop, and it is the moment most visitors remember from a Görlitz city tour.

Old town alleys and St. Peter and Paul Church

From the Untermarkt the walk follows narrow cobbled alleys downhill, past Gothic doorways, Baroque portals and houses with the typical Görlitz hall and gallery courtyards, towards the river. At the end stands the Church of St. Peter and Paul, the Peterskirche, a late Gothic hall church with five naves completed around 1497; its twin towers, added in the 1890s, are the landmark that looms over the whole city and over the Neisse below. Inside is a famous organ with a sun-shaped pipe arrangement, though the tour views the church from outside.

From the church terrace you look across the river to Zgorzelec, the Polish half of the former city, and to the footbridge that connects the two since 2004. The walk ends here after about 1.5 hours, and the guide points you towards the bridge, the cafés of the Untermarkt or the Nikolaiturm if you want to carry on exploring.