Feb

12

Nuremberg Travel & Sightseeing Guide

February 12, 2008 |

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Nuremberg is in Germany’s southern province of Bavaria about 120km north of Munich. While immediately known for its role in book ending the rise and fall of the Nazi regime, the former with the party’s mass rallies and the latter with the war crimes trials after the war, it offers the visitor much more. An important trade and commercial centre both historically and today it is a modern city with a rebuilt core that evokes its elegant past. For hundreds of years it was the residence of German royalty and also the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire and the treasures of those times can be seen in its stunning collection of museums and churches. The city takes great pride in its civic assets and maintains a wonderful balance between preserving its rich heritage and pursuing a modern future.

Nuremberg Airport
Nuremberg Airport is 7km from the city with a rail service running between each at regular intervals (about 12 minutes for the trip) from 5am-12:30am. Taxis are around €14. All the major car hire companies have desks in the terminal. See EasyCar for the best deals on Rental cars in Nuremberg.
If you are looking for a cheap flight to Nuremberg try Thomas Cook.

Sightseeing Highlights
Nuremberg was virtually destroyed during the war but its Altstadt (old city) was painstakingly rebuilt to exacting detail and unlike some ersatz medieval reconstructions retains much of its original character. The Hauptmarket is the city’s old commercial centre and is a good starting point for a walking tour with its stalls, shops, cafes and bustling crowds. Its Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas market) that runs from late November to Christmas Eve in particular is renowned for its variety of gifts, decorations and treats. The eastern end of the square is bordered by the Frauenkirche, an elaborate gothic church with a midday display of mechanical princes dancing around Charles IV accompanied by music from a glockenspiel. Also in the square is the Schoner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) a 19m replica of the original that was built in 1396, a stunning golden assembly of local burghers and biblical heroes with a golden ring attached that has been polished smooth by millions of wish-makers over the years.

Nuremberg

Not far from the Hauptmarket is the Altes Rathaus (old town hall) a large, plain building with beautiful interiors in a Renaissance style. The main attraction however, is the Lochgefangnisse (dungeons). A guided tour provides an eerie and evocative sense of the horror of what it must have been to be a prisoner in the dark and dank cells. Opposite the Rathaus is the Sebalduskirche, the city’s oldest church dating from the 13th century with a external covering of sculptures and religious symbols and inside, a glorious shrine made of bronze that took 11 years to complete. At Albrecht Durer Platz you can see the monument to the great painter, underneath which is the Felsengange, a four-storey series of rooms burrowed into the sandstone in the 14th century. The memory of Durer is preserved at the Albrech-Durer House where the renowned Renaissance draughtsman lived in the early part of the 16th century. There are exhibits showcasing his life and works and demonstrations are held in the reconstructed workshop. Tiegartnerplatz is a pretty square bordered by half-timbered houses and dominated by the Tiegartnertor a 16th century square tower. Nearby is the massive Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle) which comprises the Kaiser’s apartments, a chapel, the Imperial and Knight’s Halls, the Sinwellturm tower and the Tiefer Brunnen well. The complex also includes a displaying the castle’s history and the development of defensive techniques. A lovely view over the city is to be had from a garden behind the castle on Am Olberg, a grassy knoll in the south-eastern corner.

Book Sightseeing Tours

Nuremberg’s collection of museums is particularly impressive given its relatively small population with its jewel in the crown being the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (German National Museum). Housed in a cluster of buildings, it spans the country’s culture from prehistoric times to the early 20th century and features paintings, sculpture, arms and armour, archaeological displays, musical instruments, toys and a range of scientific exhibits. The Fembo House Municipal Museum focuses on the city itself over its near-millennium history. The building is a magnificent 16th century merchant’s house and features a multimedia show (Noricama) of the evolution of Nuremberg. Art lovers will be entranced by the Neues Museum fur Kunst und Design, a brilliant glass-fronted edifice with a superb collection of modern art including painting, sculpture, photography and video. One floor houses contemporary works and the other extends to broader art and design back to 1945. The Neues Museum predecessor was the Kunsthalle Nurnberg (Gallery of Contemporary Art) which now has regularly changing exhibitions on a particular theme or showcasing an individual artist.

The Nuremberg Transportation Museum holds two separate collections under its roof. For trainspotters (and just the casual curious) the DB Museum im Verkehrsmuseum (Railway Museum) has a huge range of locomotives, rolling stock, railway paraphernalia, simulated rides, historic dramatizations and model railways. The second is the Museum fur Kommunikation (Communication Museum) that displays the history and development of the postal service including telegraphs, delivery vehicles and telephones. The NatNaturhistorisches Museum der Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft (Natural History Museum) has a fascinating collection of regional geology, dinosaur artefacts, exhibits of cave habitats, and documentation of early northern Bavarian peoples. Other displays include Siberian hunters, New Guinea and the Sahara Desert. Kids will be fascinated by the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Museum) with four floors given over to historic wooden playthings, dolls and their houses, metal and technical toys and modern toys such as Lego, Playmobil and Barbie dolls.

Of course Nuremberg also conjures up images of both the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. The former in the shape of the mass rallies that were carefully choreographed, pompous, militaristic funnellings of hysteria. The latter, the war crimes trials of the surviving Nazi hierarchy forced to face their accusers and account for their calculated violence. The rally ground, called the reichsparteitagsgelande, is now a sombre reminder of the consequences of bombastic grandiosity. Much of it was destroyed towards the end of the war but enough remains to provide a sense of the scale of the rallies, especially if you have seen Leni Reifenstahl’s cinematic documentary Triumph of the Will.

The north-western corner of the grounds is now a park that once housed the Luitpoldarena used for SS and SA parades. The Kongreshalle (Congress Hall) is a half-built vestige of Nazi monumental architecture designed to rival Rome’s Colosseum in style and size. To help visitors understand the rise of the Nazis, the Hitlerian cult and the rallies themselves, the Dokumentationszentrum (Documentation Centre) provides a place of learning and reflection. The site of the Nazis’ denouement can be witnessed in Schwurgerchtsaal 600 (Courtroom 600) in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice where 22 party leaders and some 150 minions were tried and sentenced. The venue itself was chosen primarily for practical reasons given that the courtroom and adjacent prison were one of the few of their kind to have survived the war intact. The building is still a working court system and guided tours are only possible at weekends when the court is not in session. They provide a fascinating insight into the history of the trials as well as their impact on the creation and development of international law.


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