Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Completely Walled Medieval Town On The Romantic Road, With A Walkable Covered Rampart Of About 2.5 Km, The Plonlein Corner And A Year Round Christmas Shop · Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a completely walled medieval town of roughly eleven thousand people on a spur above the Tauber in western Bavaria, and the most visited stop on the Romantic Road. It was a wealthy free imperial city until the Thirty Years War, then stagnated for two centuries and built almost nothing new, which is why it survived intact: the full circuit of walls and towers, the Plonlein corner with its crooked house between two gates, the market square and town hall, the Riemenschneider altar in St James's Church, and lanes of half-timbered gables. Roughly forty per cent of the old town was destroyed in an air attack on 31 March 1945 and rebuilt with international donations, some recorded on plaques along the wall walk - confirm the figures. The wall walk itself is free and open at any hour and is the best thing here. The honest caveat is scale: a town this size takes well over a million visitors a year, and from mid-morning to late afternoon in season the lanes are solid with coach parties. Before 9 am and after 7 pm it is a different place.

The walled old town above the Tauber valley, western Bavaria, on the Romantic Road, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, Germany

The town is open ground and the wall walk is free and accessible at all hours, including after dark, though it is unlit in places. Shops generally open mid-morning and close around 6 pm, and many close on Sunday; the Christmas shop and the German Christmas Museum trade all year. The Medieval Crime and Justice Museum, the Reichsstadtmuseum, the town hall tower and the Roedertor tower all charge a few euros and keep seasonal hours, with the tower climbs shut in bad weather and reduced or closed from November to March - confirm each one. St James's Church charges a small fee for the chancel and closes to sightseers during services. The Night Watchman's walk goes out in the evening in English and then in German, year round in most weather.

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