Holidays to Rothenburg

Ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval towns, encircled by massive walls studded with 42 towers and filled with half-timbered houses, red-tiled roofs and flower-filled cobbled lanes. Known as the “Red Fort on the River Tauber”, it has welcomed kings, emperors and pilgrims across a thousand years of history. By day you can walk the town walls and explore the Imperial Town Museum, the Medieval Crime Museum and the famous German Christmas Museum; by night the lantern-lit Night Watchman’s Tour brings the past vividly to life. A true fairy-tale escape, it is one of the highlights of Bavaria’s Romantic Road.

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Massive stone town walls studded with 42 towers; half-timbered houses with red-tiled roofs; cobblestone streets and flower-filled window boxes: That is Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the “Red Fort on the River Tauber.” Over the past 1,000 years, the narrow lanes have welcomed kings and emperors, pilgrims and, now, international visitors. All have been – and still are – bewitched by this town, where past and present live side by side.

Picturesque by day, the town is mysterious at night, when the night watchman’s tour leads visitors through picturesque lanes. Dressed in a black cape and a broad-brimmed hat, he carries a lantern. He speaks in English as well as German and his tales bring the past to life, from the Thirty Years War and the Plague to white gold (salt) and the Herrngasse, Rothenburg’s main shopping street.

Rothenburg was also important in the past as a destination for pilgrims, eager to see the precious relic at St. James’s Church: The Heilig Blut, the drop of Christ’s holy blood. This fine Gothic church is also famous for its Altarpiece of the Holy Blood. Carved in wood by the German master, Tilman Riemenschneider, its complexity and detail are as impressive now as they were five centuries ago.