Nuremberg

A castle on a sandstone rock, half-timbered houses leaning over the river, finger-sized sausages, gingerbread and the most famous Christmas market in Germany. And, a tram ride away, the place where the Nazis staged their rallies.

NUREMBERG: Bamberg and Amberg both get a mention on this site as places you can tie in with a trip to Nuremberg (Nürnberg), so it’s about time Nuremberg had a page of its own.
It’s Bavaria’s second city, and the biggest in Franconia, the northern part of the state where people will politely remind you they’re Franconian, not Bavarian. For a big city, its old town is wonderfully compact. It sits inside a ring of medieval walls, split down the middle by the River Pegnitz, with the Kaiserburg castle looking down on it from the north.
Most of what you see was rebuilt after the bombing of 1945, which flattened the old town. They did it carefully, in the same red sandstone, and you’d hardly know.
I went in May, on a hot, blue-sky day that ran into the evening of the Blaue Nacht, the city’s big night of art and culture, when the Hauptmarkt was full of tables, lights and people.

THE HAUPTMARKT: The main market square, with the Frauenkirche on the right. Picture: Stu Anderson

The Hauptmarkt

Start at the Hauptmarkt, the main square. There’s a market here most days, and from late November it becomes the Christkindlesmarkt (more on that below). On the east side is the Frauenkirche, the Gothic church with the stepped gable, and at noon the little figures of its clock, the Männleinlaufen, come out and parade round the Emperor.
In the corner stands the Schöner Brunnen (“beautiful fountain”), a Gothic spire of a fountain about 19m high, covered in gilded and painted figures. Look for the brass ring set into its railings. Turn it, so the story goes, and your wish comes true. Expect a queue.

BLUE NIGHT: Tables out on the Hauptmarkt for the Blaue Nacht. That’s the Schöner Brunnen on the left. Picture: Stu Anderson

EVENING: The Schöner Brunnen and the Frauenkirche as the light goes. Picture: Stu Anderson

WARM NIGHT: Under the umbrellas on the Hauptmarkt. Picture: Stu Anderson

Up to the castle

From the Hauptmarkt it’s a short, steep walk uphill to the Kaiserburg, the Imperial Castle. For centuries the Holy Roman Emperors stayed here, and every newly elected king was supposed to hold his first Imperial Diet in Nuremberg. The castle is really a cluster of towers, walls and halls strung along the sandstone ridge.

THE KAISERBURG: The castle courtyard, with the square Heidenturm on the left. Picture: Stu Anderson

THE WAY IN: Through the gate into the castle. Picture: Stu Anderson

SINWELL TOWER: The round Sinwell Tower. Climb it for the best view in town. Picture: Stu Anderson

You can wander the outer courtyards for free. To see the inside you pay: the full ticket gets you the palace (the Palas), the double chapel, the castle museum, the Deep Well, cut about 50m down through the rock, and the Sinwell Tower. Do the well tour. They lower a tray of candles down the shaft and pour a jug of water in, and you wait a surprisingly long time for the splash.
The views from up here are terrific, out over a sea of red roofs and church spires. In summer, don’t miss the Burggarten, the castle garden on the walls.

ROOF WITH A VIEW: Looking south over the old town from the castle. Picture: Stu Anderson

GREEN AND GOLD: Flowers and shade in the castle garden. Picture: Stu Anderson

THE STABLES: The Kaiserstallung, the old imperial stables just below the castle. It’s a youth hostel these days. Picture: Stu Anderson

TOWERS: One of the old town’s many medieval towers. Picture: Stu Anderson

Albrecht Dürer’s corner

Below the castle’s west end is Tiergärtnertorplatz, my favourite square in Nuremberg. It’s ringed with half-timbered houses, has a few beer garden tables in summer and a great view up to the castle. Just off it is the Albrecht Dürer House, where the great painter lived and worked from 1509 until he died in 1528. It’s now a museum.

DÜRER’S NEIGHBOURHOOD: Half-timbered houses on Tiergärtnertorplatz, at the foot of the castle. Picture: Stu Anderson

LOOKING DOWN: The square from the castle walls, with the Sinwell Tower behind. Picture: Stu Anderson

TIMBER: Half-timbering in the old town. Picture: Stu Anderson

GRAND ENTRANCE: A grand doorway with the city’s coat of arms. Picture: Stu Anderson

Along the Pegnitz

The river is the other half of Nuremberg’s charm. Walk along it from the Hauptmarkt to the west and you’ll pass the Heilig-Geist-Spital, a medieval hospital built out over the water on arches, and further on the Henkersteg (hangman’s bridge), a covered wooden walkway where the city executioner once lived, cut off from respectable folk. The water tower and the long half-timbered Weinstadel, an old wine store, make one of the best photos in the city.

ON THE WATER: The Heilig-Geist-Spital, straddling the Pegnitz. Picture: Stu Anderson

HANGMAN’S BRIDGE: The covered Henkersteg and the water tower. Picture: Stu Anderson

THE WATER TOWER: The water tower and the end of the Weinstadel. Picture: Stu Anderson

VIRTUE: The Tugendbrunnen fountain by St Lorenz, and the medieval Nassauer Haus. Picture: Stu Anderson

The Nazi Party Rally Grounds

There’s a darker side to Nuremberg that I’d urge you not to skip. The Nazis chose the city for their huge annual party rallies, and south-east of the centre, around the Dutzendteich lake, you can still walk the grounds they built for them. The vast Congress Hall, modelled on the Colosseum, was meant to seat 50,000 and was never finished. Across the water is the Zeppelin Tribune, where Hitler addressed the crowds, now crumbling and fenced off in places, with ordinary people jogging and cycling past. It’s eerie.

CONGRESS HALL: The unfinished Congress Hall on the old rally grounds. Picture: Stu Anderson

NEVER FINISHED: The inner courtyard of the Congress Hall. Picture: Stu Anderson

ZEPPELIN TRIBUNE: The grandstand on the Zeppelin Field. Picture: Stu Anderson

In the north wing of the Congress Hall is the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände). You can’t miss the entrance, a glass and steel spike driven right through the building. The exhibition explains how the rallies worked and what they led to. A new permanent exhibition has been running in a trial phase since May 2026 and officially opens on 4 November 2026. From the top of the building you look down into the Congress Hall’s courtyard and out over the lake.

THE SPIKE: The entrance to the Documentation Centre, cut through the Congress Hall. Picture: Stu Anderson

THE LAKE: The Dutzendteich from the Documentation Centre. Picture: Stu Anderson

What to eat

• Nürnberger Rostbratwürste. Nuremberg’s little sausages, no bigger than your finger, grilled over beechwood. Order drei im Weggla (three in a bread roll) from a stand, or six or twelve on a plate with sauerkraut and horseradish in a tavern.
• Lebkuchen. Nuremberg gingerbread is famous, and the best kind, Elisenlebkuchen, has hardly any flour in it at all, just nuts, honey and spices. It makes a good present to take home.

The Christkindlesmarkt

If there’s one Christmas market in Germany people have heard of, it’s this one. In 2026 the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt runs from 27 November to 24 December, daily from 10am to 9pm (until 2pm on Christmas Eve). It fills the Hauptmarkt with red-and-white striped stalls selling Lebkuchen, Rostbratwürste, glühwein and wooden toys, and figures made of prunes called Zwetschgenmännla.
On the opening evening, Friday 27 November, the Christkind (a local girl in gold robes and a crown, chosen every two years) opens the market from the gallery of the Frauenkirche, and the market pauses for the ceremony at 5.30pm. Next door there’s a children’s Christmas market on Hans-Sachs-Platz (until 30 December) and a market of Nuremberg’s twin towns on the Rathausplatz.
A word of warning: it gets very busy at weekends, so if you can, go on a weekday, and get there early. For the Munich markets, see my Munich Christmas markets page.

Getting there

• Fast train. The quickest ICE trains do Munich to Nuremberg nonstop in just over an hour, but you need a normal ticket for those.
• Bayern-Ticket. The regional express trains via Ingolstadt take around an hour and three-quarters. The Bayern-Ticket covers them: €34 for one person plus €10 for each extra person, up to five. On weekdays it’s valid from 9am.
• In town. The old town starts right across the road from the main station. The Bayern-Ticket also covers Nuremberg’s trams and buses.
• To the rally grounds. Trams 6 and 8 normally stop right outside the Documentation Centre, but construction work means replacement buses on part of the route at the moment. Tram 7 or 10, or S-Bahn S2, to Dutzendteich gets you close.
• The castle. Open daily, 9am to 6pm from April to early October and 10am to 4pm in winter. The full ticket including the well and the tower is about €10.
• Documentation Centre. Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, weekends 10am to 6pm. €7.50 for adults, including a media guide.
• Combine it. Bamberg is under an hour further north by train. Here’s my Bamberg page.
Checked October 2026. Times and prices change, so check before you go.

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