Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Crooked half-timbered houses, a wall you can walk all the way round and a pastry that looks like a ball of wool. Rothenburg is the town on half the jigsaw puzzles in Germany, and it really does look like that.

ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER: If you’ve ever seen a picture of a German town that looked too pretty to be real, there’s a fair chance it was Rothenburg. It sits on a ridge above the River Tauber in the far west of Bavaria, still wrapped in its medieval walls, with towers and gateways, cobbled lanes and pastel gables stacked up like a stage set. It’s one of the most famous stops on the Romantic Road, and the coach parties know it.
I went in spring 2008 with my friend Steffi. We drove up the Romantic Road on a bright April day, with the fruit trees in blossom down in the Tauber valley, and spent the day wandering, eating and taking far too many pictures. These are some of them.

THE MARKTPLATZ: Gabled houses on Rothenburg’s market square. Picture: Stu Anderson

Why it looks like this

Rothenburg was a rich Free Imperial City in the Middle Ages, answerable only to the emperor. Then the Thirty Years’ War and a plague in 1634 left it poor and half empty, and nobody had the money to knock anything down and build something modern. For a couple of hundred years the town more or less stood still, which is exactly why it’s so complete today.
It nearly didn’t survive the Second World War. A bombing raid in 1945 destroyed about a third of the houses, mostly in the east of the town. The American official John J. McCloy, who knew how special the place was, ordered that it shouldn’t be shelled, and the town surrendered. He was made an honorary citizen in 1948.

The Marktplatz and the Master Draught

Everything starts on the Marktplatz. On one side is the Rathaus (town hall), half Gothic and half Renaissance, with a tall tower you can climb for the view. Next to it is the old councillors’ tavern, the Ratstrinkstube, with a clock on the front and a story attached.

THE RATHAUS: Rothenburg’s town hall on the Marktplatz. Picture: Stu Anderson

In October 1631, during the Thirty Years’ War, the Catholic general Tilly turned up with his army and threatened to burn the town down. According to the legend, the councillors offered him wine from a huge tankard, and Tilly said he’d spare Rothenburg if one of them could drink the lot in one go. The mayor, Georg Nusch, stepped up and downed over three litres, and the town was saved. It’s almost certainly made up (the story doesn’t appear in writing until more than a century later) but nobody here cares.
Every hour from 10am to 10pm, two little windows open either side of the clock on the Ratstrinkstube. Tilly appears in one, and in the other Nusch lifts his tankard and drinks while the clock chimes. It’s over quickly, so get there a few minutes before the hour and grab a spot.

BOTTOMS UP: The Ratstrinkstube, with the Meistertrunk clock above the door. Picture: Stu Anderson

ON THE SQUARE: The fountain on the Marktplatz, with the Ratstrinkstube on the left. Picture: Stu Anderson

The Plönlein

Walk south down the Untere Schmiedgasse and you come to the Plönlein, the little fork in the road with a skinny yellow half-timbered house in the middle and a gate tower on each side. This is the picture on the jigsaws, the postcards and probably the biscuit tins, and it’s always busy, but it’s still lovely.

THE FAMOUS CORNER: The Siebers tower at the Plönlein. Picture: Stu Anderson

UNDER THE TOWER: The Siebers tower from the lane. Picture: Stu Anderson

PRETTY IN PINK: One of the old town’s half-timbered houses. Picture: Stu Anderson

Walk the walls

The best thing to do in Rothenburg, and it’s free. Most of the old town wall still has its covered sentry walk, and you can follow it for about 2.5 km from the Spital bastion in the south round to the Klingentor in the north, looking down into people’s back gardens and across the red roofs. It’s roofed, so it works in the rain as well. There are stairs up at several of the gates, including the Rödertor and the Kobolzeller Tor.

OVER THE ROOFTOPS: The view from the wall walk. Picture: Stu Anderson

ON THE WALL: A wall tower and half-timbered house, seen from the sentry walk. Picture: Stu Anderson

LOOKING DOWN: A cobbled lane in the old town from above. Picture: Stu Anderson

MIND YOUR HEADS: A horse and cart squeezing through one of the town gates. Picture: Stu Anderson

The castle garden and the Tauber valley

At the western end of town, through the old castle gate, is the Burggarten, the garden where Rothenburg’s castle used to stand. The castle’s long gone, but there are benches, big old trees and a view down into the Tauber valley. When we went, the cherry trees on the slopes were in full blossom.

THROUGH THE GATE: The gate into the Burggarten. Picture: Stu Anderson

SPRINGTIME: Blossom on the slopes, and Rothenburg’s walls on the skyline. Picture: Stu Anderson

TIME FOR A SIT DOWN: Old trees in the castle garden. Picture: Stu Anderson

Christmas every day

Rothenburg has gone all-in on Christmas. Käthe Wohlfahrt has its big Christmas shop just off the Marktplatz, open all year, along with a German Christmas Museum. You’ll know you’re close when you see the giant nutcracker. It’s a bit odd buying tree decorations in April, but plenty of people were doing it.

CRACKING SMILE: The giant nutcracker outside Käthe Wohlfahrt. Picture: Stu Anderson

ALL ABOARD: Steffi with the Käthe Wohlfahrt delivery truck. Picture: Stu Anderson

If that’s too jolly for you, there’s the Medieval Crime Museum (Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum) instead, full of torture instruments, iron masks of shame and stories of witch trials.

Schneeballen

You can’t leave without trying a Schneeball (snowball). It’s Rothenburg’s speciality, a round pastry about the size of a fist. They roll out shortcrust dough, cut it into strips, weave it into a loose ball, deep-fry it and dust it with icing sugar. You can also get them dipped in chocolate, coated in nuts or filled. They’ve been making them around here for at least 400 years, and the bakery windows are piled high with them.
They’re crunchy, sweet and gloriously messy. You will get icing sugar all down your front, and you won’t mind. We bought ours from one of the shops in the old town and ate them in the street, as you can see.

SNOWBALL FIGHT: Schneeballen in every flavour in a Rothenburg shop window. Picture: Stu Anderson

THE VERDICT: Steffi with her Schneeball. Picture: Stu Anderson

FIRST BITE: Down it goes. Picture: Stu Anderson

SIGN OF THE TIMES: One of the old town’s wrought-iron hotel signs. Picture: Stu Anderson

For something savoury, the butchers do a good trade in sausages from the window. When we were there you could get a bratwurst in a roll for €2, which tells you how long ago 2008 was.

2008 PRICES: Bratwurst for two euros. Those were the days. Picture: Stu Anderson

The Night Watchman

If you stay for the evening, join the Night Watchman’s tour. A man in a black cloak with a lantern and a halberd walks you round the old town after dark, telling stories about what life was really like here in the Middle Ages. There are English-language tours in the evenings for much of the year, and itThere’s an English-language tour most evenings, and it’s good fun.rsquo;s good fun. Check the times locally, as they change through the year.

THAT’S ME: Out and about in the old town. Picture: Stu Anderson

On the way: Harburg Castle

If you’re driving up the Romantic Road from Munich like we were, keep an eye out for Harburg Castle, sitting on a rock above the road near Donauwörth. It’s one of the best-preserved castles in southern Germany and you can’t miss it from the road.

ROAD TRIP: Harburg Castle from the road on the way up to Rothenburg. Picture: Stu Anderson

Getting there

• By train. It’s a long day trip. There’s no direct train, and it usually takes around three and a half hours each way, changing at least at Steinach for the little branch line to Rothenburg (often also at Ansbach or Nuremberg). A few RE trains a day go direct from Munich to Steinach, which cuts out a change.
• Bayern-Ticket. Valid on all the regional trains on the way. €34 for one person plus €10 for each extra person, up to five. It isn’t valid on ICE or IC trains.
• By car. Rothenburg is on the Romantic Road, so you can make a day of the drive and stop off in places like Harburg, Nördlingen or Dinkelsbühl on the way.
• Stay over? Honestly, it’s worth it if you can. The town empties out when the coaches leave in the evening, and that’s when it’s at its most magical.
• Meistertrunk clock. Every hour from 10am to 10pm.
• Wall walk. Free, and open at all hours.
Checked October 2026. Times and prices change, so check before you go.

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