Tom`s travels: Nürnberg, Fürth & Erlangen (27-28/11/2021)

The last November weekend, Ania and I had planned to head down to Nuremberg to see the famous Christmas Market and also get the chance to see the city and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, right before leaving, the Bavarian government had decided to cancel all Christmas markets due to the high covid cases, so we sadly did not get the chance to see them. After catching a really early train from Berlin we arrived a few hours later in Nuremberg. As we exited the train station we entered the large old town through one of the southern city gates, the Frauentor, with its large round tower which is one of the four main ones along the walls of the city. Nuremberg has in fact large sections of walls still enclosing the old medieval city; construction started during the 12th century and ended during the 16th century, resulting in about 4 out of 5 km of walls still present. Unfortunately, like most of the buildings in the old town, even the walls were largely reconstructed after suffering damage during WWII when around 90% of the city was destroyed. Right below the tower a small area of restored timber-framed houses and picturesque alleyways was set up as a handicrafts market which we decided to walk through. From there we then followed the main street, the Königstraße, cutting the city in half on a north-south line, and passing by the churches of St Martha and St Klara both of which were closed. At the end of it, we then reached the city's main church, the church of St Lorenz, one of the most prominent Evangelical churches in Bavaria. Built in a Gothic style between the 13th and 15th centuries, it was badly damaged during the war but later restored to its former glory. It features a beautiful impressive main facade on its western side with two tall slender twin towers reaching 81m in height. Below the towers is the main portal sculpted between 1350 and 1360 with the Stories of the life of Jesus. The interior, very spacious and tall as is typical in Gothic churches, featured some interesting and noteworthy parts and sculptures such as the large Crucifix from around 1500 and below it the Angelic greeting, known locally as the Englisches Gruss, a superb masterpiece of German Gothic sculpture executed between 1517 and 1519 by the great Veit Stoss representing Mary and the archangel Gabriel at the moment of the Annunciation. Next to it was the Sakramenthäuschen, the tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament: another great masterpiece of German Gothic sculpture created between 1493 and 1496 by the local sculptor Adam Kraft and reaching up to 20 meters in height. After the visit to the beautiful church, we then continued along the main street and reached the Museumsbrücke which crossed over the Pegnitz river and granted a great view of the Heilig-Geist-Spital. This large complex was built during the 14th century and was the largest medieval hospital in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg. Continuing onwards we then reached the large Hauptmarkt, the main square in town, which was supposed to hold the Christmas market but now featured all of the closed stalls waiting to be dismantled. To the east of the square, we then visited the Frauenkirche, probably the most known church in town, which was built in Gothic style on the initiative of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor between 1352 and 1362. Its main facade is quite unusual and impressive as it features a richly decorated gabled facade with a balcony and above it the Männleinlaufen, a mechanical clock that commemorates the Golden Bull of 1356. The interior was quite small but nice with some interesting objects, though like most other buildings around town, it was destroyed during WWII and heavily restored. After exiting the church we crossed the square, passing by the beautiful Schöner Brunnen, literally beautiful fountain, a 14th-century Gothic monument with a 19m spire which is considered one of the most beautiful in Europe. Nowadays, the fountain on the square is a modern copy, as the original is kept inside the city's museum. Nearby we then reached and visited the church of St Sebaldus, competing in size with the not-so-distant church of St Lorenz. Originally built during the 13th century in a Romanesque style its current Gothic appearance is from the refurbishment which took place during the 14th and 15th centuries. Its interior featured a nice early 16th-century Crucifix by Veit Stoss, a late 14th-century polychrome ciborium, and a beautiful bronze mausoleum from 1519 as the tomb of St Sebaldus which represents today the first example of the reception of Italian Renaissance forms north of the Alps. From the church, we walked on passing through the small Albrecht-Dürer-Platz and reaching then the northwestern part of the old town where a series of nicely reconstructed townhouses, most of which with timber framings, were located. Here was also one of the towers dotting the town walls, the Tiergärtnertor, with its tall and slender form, and next to it the Pilatushaus one of the few surviving late Gothic houses in the city. Right in front of it on the other side of the square was the Albrecht Dürer's House, a 15th-century timber-framed building that was the home of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer from 1509 to his death in 1528 and holds now a museum dedicated to him. From there we then decided to exit the old town by passing through the city gate below the tower and then followed the outline of the walls for a bit until we headed back inside the old town further down south at the Neutorturm, another of the city gates and towers. We walked further and reached the Schlayerturm, a lovely tower with an arched gateway/bridge spanning over the Pegnitz river. Nearby we then crossed over the river on the Maxbrucke and admired the Henkerturm another medieval tower with a covered bridge over the same river. Turning back from where we came we then reached the Weißgerbergasse, a lovely picturesque street lined by timber-framed houses of all colors built right next to each other and built following the curve of the street. It is one of the few predominantly preserved monumental ensembles in the old town, as, in fact, this area survived rather unscathed during the WWII bombings, and thus about twenty houses along the street were spared from damage. It was really nice to walk through it and admire the beautiful architecture and I could imagine how beautiful Nuremberg must have been when most of its old town consisted of such picturesque buildings. At the end of the street, we passed once again next to the church of St Sebaldus and from there headed straight uphill until we reached the famous castle. Once there though we found out that in order to visit the museum we were required to have a negative covid test and so we had to walk all the way back down and through town to head to a test center. After a bit of a wait, we took the swab test and then headed back up to the castle hoping to get the result as fast as possible. By the time we were up, we had it and could now enter the castle proper. Rather than a single building, it consists of a large complex sitting on a sandstone ridge on the highest point in town dominating the medieval city and surrounded by its own walls and with the town walls nearby as well. Considered to be one of Europe's most formidable medieval fortifications, it represented the power and importance of the Holy Roman Empire and the outstanding role of the Imperial City of Nuremberg. In fact, Holy Roman Emperors did not have a capital or a stable location but rather voyaged from one of their castles or residences to the next. The castle of Nuremberg was thus one of such locations and now comprises three sections: the Imperial castle, the former Burgraves' castle, and the buildings erected by the Imperial City on the eastern side. We entered the complex from the east passing through the main gate directly below the Sinwell Tower and reaching the main courtyard. In front of us was the main part of the complex with the nice and tall Heathens' Tower guarding it all. We paid for the entry ticket after showing our negative test results and then entered the museum. We first passed through some rooms which were once used as living quarters and then entered the nice Kaiserkapelle, the imperial chapel built in a Romanesque style around the 1200s and thus one of the oldest parts of the castle. Inside was also a late Gothic Crucifix by the master Veit Stoss. After visiting the rest of the rooms which contained some nice objects and furniture and also a room dedicated to medieval weapons, it was time to head back out. We walked back down the hill through the city center and stopped to visit the church of St Egidien. Badly damaged during the war it was reconstructed in its former baroque aspect. Nearby we then found a small place to have lunch, the Ayurveda Paradise, where we had a kind of Indian vegan dish which was rather good and cheap. After eating we walked back through town and the main square headed towards the southwestern part of the city where we passed by another square, the Ludwigsplatz, and where the nice and tall Weißer Turm, or White Tower, was located. In front of it, we then visited the church of St Elisabeth, a late 18th-century Neoclassical religious monument built over a pre-existing much smaller church, used by the local catholic population. Right across from it on the other side of the street was the church of St Jakob, built in a Gothic style and with a rather empty and modern-looking interior due to the damage sustained during the war. After the visit to the two churches, we decided to head to visit the large and famous Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Germany's largest museum of cultural history. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day, holding approximately 1.3 million objects, only 250 thousand of which are on display. The museum was huge and we spent several hours inside until closing time. There were some really nice objects and important pieces. I particularly liked the section on ancient objects, with the bronze age Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch from 1000 B.C., the Ostrogothic eagle-shaped fibula from the 6th century, and the Ardennes Cross, a wooden processional cross from the Carolingian period. Then there was also a whole section on paintings from the middle ages over to the modern period with important artists such as Durer and Cranach the Elder. Very interesting was the Erdapfel, a terrestrial globe produced by Martin Behaim from 1490–1492 considered the oldest surviving terrestrial globe. Another section I really liked was the part where old houses from around the Germanic-speaking area were rebuilt with their furniture and architectural characteristics. And finally a nice section on weapons and armor mostly from the middle ages and early modern period. After the visit to the museum, we came out that it was already dark, and we decided to walk around town and head over to the main square once more. Despite the fact that there was no Christmas market the setting was still nice with the Christmas trees in front of the Frauenkirche and some lights hanging here and there still. For dinner then we decided to head to a restaurant called Alte Küch'n & Im Keller, a place with a medieval-like atmosphere underground where we had a typical local meal: I had pork knuckle with potatoes and sauerkraut while Ania had potatoes, bell pepper, and a salad, all with a local beer. After dinner, we had a stroll through town and then headed to our accommodation, located in the western part of the city.

In the morning, we woke up at a decent hour and found a place near the accommodation to have breakfast. We picked a nice little cafè called Machhörndl Kaffee where we ate a tasty breakfast. Then we walked to the nearby Palace of Justice of Nuremberg; built from 1909 to 1916, it houses the appellate court, the regional court, the local court, and the public prosecutor's office. This is where the Nuremberg trials took place between 1945 and 1949 to judge the main surviving German war criminals of World War II. We did not head inside the memorial room where the trials took place as it was still before opening time and there were specific hours it could be visited with a guided tour only. Instead, we headed to the nearest U-Bahn station and took the next ride into the nearby town of Fürth. We came out of the station and started our tour of the old town of Fürth, which survived the Second World War with less damage than most German cities, and many historic buildings are still intact to this day. We walked through some narrow alleyways which featured some really nice timber-framed houses from the 17th to 19th centuries. We then followed the main street, Gustavstraße, sided by some other nice buildings and houses. Despite it being a late Sunday morning the town looked deserted and there was no one around in sight. As is typical in Germany all shops were closed but also the restaurant and cafès looked mostly closed and empty, and this in a town of over 100,000 people part of one of the large metro areas in Germany. Walking further we then reached the town's main church, St Michael's, dating to the 12th century in a Gothic style with a 45m high bell tower from the 1400s. The interior though was remade in a neogothic style during the end of the 19th century and didn't feature anything particularly noteworthy. From the church, we then reached the main square, the Markt, with nice gabled and timber-framed houses all around and a view of the aforementioned church to the east. We walked around a bit more through the rest of the old, admiring the architecture, and then passed by the city's town hall, the Rathaus, built in the Italian style by Friedrich Bürklein between 1840 and 1850 and modeled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. From there we then walked to the train station and took a regional train to the city of Erlangen, just a few kilometers to the north. The city was founded long ago, and features a small old town, but grew particularly between the 17th and 18th centuries when a large population of Huguenots settled there. In fact, the Edict of Nantes which was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation was then revoked in 1685. These protestants had to flee and Margrave Christian Ernst took advantage of this situation and offered the refugees the right to settle in his principality, which was still suffering from the consequences of the Thirty Years' War, in order to promote its economy in the sense of mercantilism through the settlement of modern trades. Thus a plan to expand the city and host these refugees was drafted for the city and nowadays most of its layout and buildings date to that period. As we headed out of the station we immediately came by the large Hugenottenkirche, built between1686 and 1693, which then served the Huguenot community which had settled in the city and is now the oldest Huguenot church still in use outside of France. Nearby we then passed by the Neustädter Kirche, another baroque church that since 1837 is the university church of the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Both churches were closed so we continued on through town, and decided then to look for a place to have lunch. We found the burger chain, Hans Im Glück, right nearby where we had a tasty meal. After lunch, we continued on the tour of the city and after walking along the main street reached the Schloßplatz, the town's main square. To the east of it was the Markgräfliches Schloss a residence built between 1700 and 1704 by George William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and the first baroque palace in Franconia. It is now used by the university of the city as one of its main buildings. Continuing along the main street we reached the old part of Erlangen, where the medieval core of the city before the expansion used to be. Irregular and narrow alleyways were now apparent compared to the orderly grid planned for larger streets of the baroque newer town. However, this part of the old town had also been refurbished during the baroque period after the Huguenots had settled in town and so also most of the streets and many of the buildings had been reconstructed as well. The main church, Altstädter Kirche, was in fact rebuilt in the baroque style during the early 18th century and was open at the time of our visit so we could see also the interior. After that and a stroll around the neighborhood surrounding the church, we then headed back to the palace and here entered the large park which stands behind it, so to the east. We passed by the nice Orangerie and then walked through the trees until we exited the park from the opposite side. From there we then decided to head east, passing by the huge factory of Siemens which here has its largest location, and head out of the city center to reach the large forest bordering the city to the east and south. Here we reached the Wildschweingehege, a small fenced area of the forest where wild boars lived. We observed them happily sniffing and digging through the ground to find food, and noticed how one of them, probably a male, looked so large it seemed like a cow from the distance. As we were there it then started snowing and after a while of observing the animals decided to head back to the city to warm up. We reached the city center and then entered Café Bassanese, a coffee place where I remembered a friend of mine from university in Venice had worked during the summer. We had warm drinks and spent the rest of the time enjoying a bit of pause from walking and visiting. Then right before leaving the city, we decided to take a sandwich from the chain Subways to have on the train for dinner on the way back to Berlin.

The round tower of the Frauentor in Nuremberg

The interior of the Lorenzkirche

The Lorenzkirche

The Heilig-Geist-Spital

The Frauenkirche

The bronze mausoleum from 1519 as the tomb of St Sebaldus inside the Sebalduskirhce which represents the first example of the reception of Italian Renaissance forms north of the Alps.