Nuremberg is the second-largest city placed in the German state of Bavaria in the administrative region of Middle Franconia or Frankes as the German call it. The city has a very rich history through the ages.
The first ”Nurembergers” probably came from Upper Franconia. They reached the Pegnitz valley through the Rednits valley and they built their settlement on the transport route to Sulzbach. The castle was built significantly later after the small village had reached the size of a market town.
There are so many things to do and to visit in Nuremberg.
I visited the city for the first time this October. Since I was there because of work and I had a very busy schedule, unfortunately I did not have enough time to see much. I am planing to visit this city again and I hope the next time will be for leisure.
My Nuremberg friends suggest that the best time for visit is the around Christmas, during the Advent season. The reason they suggest it is because Nuremberg is very famous for their absolutely stunning Christmas-market or Nürnberg Christkindlesmarkt as they call it. They say that the atmosphere is fantastic and it is worth visiting and there are so many things to see, do, look at and buy there. It is taking place at the Nürnberg Hauptmarkt. Each year on the Friday before the first Advent Sunday, the Christmas Angel (a local girl) every year opens the Nuremberg Christmas market.
During my stay I had a chance to visit few of their regular markets that are open during the whole year. The first market I visited was the Nürnberg Hauptmarkt.
Nuremberg’s largest market square is in the heart of the city center. There are many things to see and do. The Hauptmarkt is the location of many of Nuremberg’s annual fairs and festivals such as the Trempelmärkte (Nuremberg Flea Market) and the Nürnberger Alstadtfest (Nuremberg Old Town Festival).
On a daily basis, at the Hauptmarkt the Wochenmarkt (farmers market) takes place here as well, this is a Monday to Saturday Nuremberg market. There you can buy all sorts of fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy products from local farmers, as well as many other treats.
The Hauptmarkt is characterized by the facade of the Frauenkirche (The Church of Our Lady), a Gothic church commission by Emperor Charles IV in 1352. Nuremberg’s star attraction and much photographed monument, the extremely ornate Schöner Brunnen, drinking fountain is also in the Hauptmarkt.
The city’s Rathaus, the Town Hall and tourist office are also located in the Hauptmarkt as well. The Rathaus is the imposing Renaissance building by the architect Jakob Wolff the Younger (1571-1620) was severely damaged during the Second World War and had to be rebuilt to a large extent in the 1950s. Around of the Hauptmarkt, there are many kinds of attractions such as the Kirche St. Sebaldus, the oldest of Nuremberg’s churches but plenty of nice cafes, bars and restaurants as well.
After the exploring the shopping area I ended up at the Ludwigsplatz.
There is the Nuremberg famous fountain Ehekarussell in the middle of the Ludwigsplatz. It was designed by Jürgen Weber artist who went above and beyond in his design. The statue is titled “Marriage Carousel” and was completed in just 1984. The statue consists of a rough circle of visceral male and female figures that represent various points in a couple’s life.
It highlights 6 stages of marriage, from the beginning passion, through gluttony, until finally, as I show in my photos “til death do us part”, where the wife is strangling the husband to death, both shown as dead people already. Many of the figures are nude or beset by animals ranging from mundane (a goat) to monstrous (a giant lizard). Taken all together, the fountain was not much loved. A lot of people find the fountain very ugly. I find it interesting. Some visitors are delighted and some others horrified, in the same way like in most of the marriages there is some disagreements from time to time so you can consider this visitors disagreement symbolic.
If you continue from the fountain which is right in the middle of the Ludwigsplatz as I mentioned, with a tower behind it and is right before you get to Elisabethkirche and St. Jacob’s Church, through Jakobsplatz, you will see in front of you a very interesting market.
Near of the Ludwigsplatz you can also find nice and cozy cafes and restaurants.
During the year you can visit different kinds of festivals there, such as Wine- festival from 13.07.2017 until 17.07.2017, or Fish-days festival (Fischtage) which I visited myself because it took place from the 13.10.2017 until 22.10.2017.
It is a very interesting open air market with a lot of food and drinks and interesting events and stuff to buy, for example I loved the Nürnberg Lebkuchen stalls. Nuremberg is famous for its Nürnberg Lebkuchen and has been producing gingerbread for over 600 years.
I like those that are in the shape of a heart, from which I bought a lot as presents from Germany to my friends in Amsterdam.
I tasted different kind of snacks there.
You can also buy some goodies to take home with you.
There are plenty of choices for food and drinks.
The atmosphere is like a party with many visitors of all ages.
Despite the atmosphere, around the market you can also see very impressive breathtaking monuments.
Even if you come alone you are not going to feel lonely here.
The most difficult thing that you are going to experience at the Fish-days festival is what to choose to eat. The food is fresh made, it is delicious and the smells are tempting.
There is one tip that I would like to share with you if you are going to enjoy a glass of beer at this market.
Even the glass of beer costs €4 they are going to charge you €6. It is happening because they charge €2 for the glass. So you are free to take a glass with you if you wish. If you don’t want the glass then you can bring it back to the barman and he will give you €2 back, or you can refuse this €2 back and live it to the barman as a tip.
If you are interested for shopping walk through the main shopping street, Karolinenstrasse, you can find a lot of chain stores such as Zara, H&M, Tommy Hilfiger also the shopping malls, it is pedestrian street, and I really enjoyed to stroll around.
There are also nice shops at the Kaiserstrasse and the Josephplatz.
At the Josephspl. 4, there is an interesting shop with traditional German outfit, the Moser Trachten, it is kind of expensive, but the garments are made of the best fabrics and by the best Bavaria’s costume designers (35 branches).
So, if you are looking for the coolest outfit for the next beer-fest this is the shop you should definitely visit.
In the opposite side of the street from the Moser Trachten shop there is nice shop with vegetarian goodies.
If you walk through Karolinenstrasse you will see at the and of the street a beautiful church with two towers, this is the St. Lorenz church.
I suggest you to turn left downhill through Konigstrasse.
You will pass over the beautiful bridge Museumsbrucke from where you can admire the amazing Pegnitz River.
When you pass the Museumsbrucke bridge, turn slightly left and you will find yourself at the Hauptmarkt square.
This is the place I described at the beginning of this blog post where is the farmers market at this time of year and each year from the Friday before the first Advent Sunday, the Christmas Angel opens the Nuremberg Christmas market at the same place. After exploring the Hauptmarkt I passed behind of the impressive Sankt Sebaldus church.
Then I continued to walk uphill through the Burgstrasse.
The Sankt Sebaldus church is huge and very well-preserved.
I couldn’t take a photo of the entire building due to its size.
Behind the Sankt Sebaldus church is Rathaus, the Nuremberg Town Hall.
The imposing Renaissance building by the architect Jakob Wolff the Younger(1571-1620) was severely damaged during the Second World War and had to be rebuilt to a large extent in the 1950s.
The Hole prison in the basement are considered a tourist attraction, as well as the Beautiful drinking fountain , which is located directly in front, designed by Kurt Schneckendorf.
During the Second Worlad War, the beautiful fountain was wrapped in a concrete coat and survived the bombardment intact.
I continued climbing to the Kaiserburg castle, the symbol of Nuremberg, but my head was constantly turning back to the impressive Sankt Sebaldus church.
Finally I saw the castle in front of me.
Since the Middle Ages its silhouette has represented the power and importance of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and the outstanding role of the imperial city of Nuremberg.
I walked up to the castle.
A wide footpath leads into the outer courtyard through the Heavenly Gate (Himmelstor) situated next to the Hasenburg tower (named after the Bohemian Hasenburg family).
There is a small church at the entrance.
Everything is so beautiful at the autumn time of year.
The colors are amazing.
I am glad that the weather was so great, so I was able to explore around.
The view from the castle is breathtaking.
The Sinwell Tower built in the 2nd half of the 13th century was the major ,,keep” of the Castle. The the word keep, refers to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the castle fall to an adversary. It is named after its cylindrical form: in Middle High German sinwell means perfectly round. In the 1560s, its height was increased by a further floor and a pavilion roof with a pointed helm.
The Deep Well (Tiefer Brunnen) inside the small half-timbered house in the middle of the courtyard is certainly as old as the castle itself, as it was the castle’s only source of water. Its shaft reaches the water level in a depth of 50 meters (164 feet) and the water usually is 3 m (10 ft) deep.
I went to the castle late in the evening so I wasn’t able to visit this attraction. I wish I will have a chance next time.
The castle itself is actually a group of medieval fortified buildings on a sandstone ridge.
The Kaiserburg castle, together with the city walls is considered to be one of Europe’s most formidable medieval fortifications.
During my visit to the castle, I had a funny situation regarding the public toilets. The toilets were locked. Then one girl who was also visiting the castle after realizing that they are locked, started to knock on the nearest houses doors because she was so desperate to use it as soon as possible. After few minutes a man opened one of the doors she was knocking. She told him something in German language, and he came back with a key. He opened the toilet door for us, and he left. After using the toilet I went to wash my hands. I put a lot of liquid soap on my palms, but there was no water in the faucet so I couldn’t wash away the soap from my palms. I tried to remove the soap with paper tissues, but my hands was so sticky. Thank God I found in my purse some wet alcohol wipes for glasses so I somehow got out of this trouble.
I got a bit of hungry so I decided to go back to the old town.
It was hard to go, I really fell in love with this beautiful castle.
I took so many nice photos, it was difficult to choose which I am going to put in this blog post.
I went back to the city through the, Burgstrasse again, but this time I turned left to the Sebalder square, in front of the Sankt Sebaldus church.
I found one cozy restaurant, the Goldenes Posthorn, there I enjoyed my lunch and a glass of local beer.
They have a nice garden behind the church and it was a place where most of the visitors were locals, so I assumed that this place is serving good food and I was right. I definitely recommend this place for lunch.
Then I went in front of the Sankt Sebaldus church that is located at the Albrecht-Dürer-Platz, in front of the old city hall.
This is a medieval church which you can visit.
The construction of the building began in 1225 and it was completed by 1273-75. The building is very impressive and in very good condition.
In the vicinity, actually on the right side of the church and in front of the Rathouse is one more nice place to eat and drink. The Bratwursthäusle Werner Behringer, a cozy and casual restaurant, with nice and big covered garden.
I went back through the other bridge which is parallel with the Museumsbrucke. The name of the bridge is Fleischbrucke. The famous Nuremberg meat bridge over the Pegnitz river.
There was an interesting festival going on. Kind of a food market at the bridge. The Mercato dei sapori – Italian market in Nuremberg. It was stalls for wine and snacks. Nice atmosphere, Italian delicacies, vino rosso and Prosecco, accompanied by music and art from “BELLA ITALIA”.
The bridge itself is dated from the 16th century. Today, the bridge is a type of hot-spot for Nuremberg. Events are organized on a very frequent basis. Impressive single-arch, pillarless stone bridge that connects the old parts of St. Sebald and St. Lawrence. The Meat Bridge is modeled after a famous bridge in Italy the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Therefore the Italian food market is taking place there. The “OCHS” on the bridge is very impressive. If somebody in Nuremberg ask you something, and you don’t know the answer, you can say: “ask the ox on the meat bridge”. This kind of local joke.
As I said the atmosphere on the bridge was great and very crowded, weather was sunny and beautiful. I was really impressed. Even though I am not vegetarian, the fact that they also serve vegetarian snacks on the meat bridge was very interesting to me.
I did not have a time to visit any of the museums, because I was free only in the evening , when museums were closed. But there are a lot of museums in Nuremberg worth visiting. The shops are open until 9 pm.
The Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelaende at the Bayernstr. 110. People say it is the must to visit when you are in Nuremberg, and as my Nuremberg friends said to me you need at least 3 to 4 hours if you want to see everything.
Nuremburg Trial Courthouse at the Baerenschanzstr. 72, is also walkable from the old town, but you have to wear comfortable shoes.
DB Museum (German Railway Museum), at Lessingstr. 6. The museum’s external exhibition space covers some 15,000 m² and includes a vintage train platform, interactive signal box and a display depot containing train-related treasures from the museum’s various collections.
Nuremberg Toy Museum (Spielzeugmuseum) at the Karlstrasse 13-15. This excellent museum tracks the history of toys from before the 18th century to present day.
And there are many more museums worth visiting in Nuremberg.
The greatest German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, was born in May 21, 1471, at the Imperial Free City of Nürnberg. He died April 6, 1528, in Nürnberg. He was a great painter and print maker.
His house is located near the Kaiserburg section of the Nuremberg Castle and the Tiergärtnertor of Nuremberg’s city walls. It was built around 1420. It has five stories. Since 1871 the Albrecht-Dürer-Haus has been a museum dedicated to Dürer’s life and work. The museum features installations of period furnishings, a re-creation of Dürer’s workshop in which visitors can view demonstrations of printmaking techniques, and rotating exhibitions of drawings and prints by Dürer from the City of Nuremberg’s Graphic Collection.
The modern system of Chamber of Commerce is developed here in the early 19th century under Napoleon’s influence. Its development can be explained by structural changes, the turning away from state-regulated mercantilism and by the transition to a more liberal economic system increasingly based on the idea of competition. The Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry which was founded as institution in 1843 still works in this tradition. It is one of the longest- standing institutions of the self-governing economy. Hardly any otther chamber in Germany has a similarly long history.
The current commercial code (HGB) is also originated here in Nuremberg. If you are planing to start a business in Germany or with Germans you should be aware of this law regulations. For example: Did you know, for instance, that giving notice under German law is usually only legally effective, if an original wet ink copy of the letter of termination (written notice) is handed to the employee, tenant, business partner, etc? Providing notice by email, fax or orally, has no effect.
Or have you heard about the German legal principle that a unilateral confirmation of contract letter (kaufmännisches Bestätigungsschreiben) sent from one merchant to the other becomes a binding contract if the confirmation letter is not immediately rejected by the recipient of the letter? If you are interested about it you can learn more about the pitfalls of German Contract Law and German Company Regulations then check out this page of Cross Channel Lawyers. They are experts on English and German law.
Walking through the Nuremberg in the evening by myself, felt really safe, people are nice and helpful most of them speak very good English.
I can suggest you with all my heart to visit Handwerkerhof when you are in Nuremberg.
It is close to the main train station. You get there through Frauentor gateway.
A very charming place to visit and excellent place to have a quality local snack and buy hand-made local souvenirs.
It is outside of the old city, but within the city wall.
Stepping into the Handwerkerhof and walking through the cobbled path is almost like a stepping back in time.
It is actually quite small square-shaped alleyway with old German style houses.
There are a lot of bars and restaurants around. The area is very crowded.
At the Nuremberg you have a lot of choices for accommodation. I was staying at the Motel One Nuremberg Plaerrer, really lovely and cozy hotel. It is located just outside Nuremberg’s medieval Old Town, just 10 minutes walking distance from the city center. It is close to Plaerrer station from where you can catch the tram or Underground to the town. My room overlooked at the hotel courtyard, which was very quiet and I had a very good sleep every night. It is very nice designed hotel, with great and friendly staff.
The room was neat and clean, the bed comfortable and the Wi-fi had good and fast connection. I really don’t have anything to complain about it and I enjoyed my stay there.
The breakfast was great with plenty of organic ingredients, and well worth, just €9, the coffee was also excellent. I can highly recommend this hotel to everyone. An Aldi supermarket is just around the corner if you wish to buy some snacks.
I hope I gave you the most important information about the Nuremberg. It is very beautiful city that I am looking forward to visit again soon. If you find yourself in Nuremberg do not forget to try the famous and delicious Nuremberg bratwursts (sausages)! The Nuremberg’s sizzling sausage tradition started way back in the 14th century and they are the trademark of the city.
If you wish to stay at the same hotel, please press the link on Booking.com website, to check the price and availability.
Embrace yourself, embrace the world 