Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Altes Rathaus: Travel Guide

A town hall that never quite lines up

Look at the tower first. It rises from the long facade of the Altes Rathaus, but it isn’t in the middle, and the asymmetry is the building’s signature. Hieronymus Lotter put it up in 1556–57, in less than a year, along the whole east side of the Markt.

At street level the ground floor is an arcade of shops. Above them, a band of Renaissance gables and an inscription frieze run the length of the building. The address is simply Markt 1, which tells you how central it is to the city.

Inside the Altes Rathaus

The museum covers Leipzig’s history and culture through art, crafts, documents and objects. It is housed in rooms that were built to govern the city. The main exhibition is on the upper floor. These are the things people come for:

• The Festsaal, the long ceremonial hall, lined with portraits of Saxon rulers and city figures.
• The Ratsstube, the old council chamber, still panelled and furnished as a working room of power.
• The Schatzkammer, the treasury vault where the council kept its valuables.
• Bach: the museum owns Elias Gottlob Haussmann’s 1746 portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach holding a canon, the likeness most people picture when they think of him.

The building has a large footprint, so the rooms run one after another along its length. Allow about two hours if you read the labels. It is consistently well rated, and visitors mostly praise the historic interiors themselves.

Getting to Markt 1

You barely need directions. The City-Tunnel station Leipzig Markt opens onto the square, and S-Bahn lines from Leipzig Hauptbahnhof get you there in a couple of minutes. Walking from the Hauptbahnhof takes about 10 minutes through the pedestrianised old town.

Everything else in the centre is a short walk away:

• Naschmarkt and the Alte Börse, directly behind the town hall, with the young Goethe statue.
• Mädler-Passage and Auerbachs Keller, the cellar from Goethe’s Faust, a few steps south.
• Thomaskirche, Bach’s church and the place he is buried, roughly five minutes west.
• Nikolaikirche, the starting point of the 1989 Monday demonstrations, about five minutes east.

Planning around the Markt

The opening hours are straightforward: 10am to 6pm every day from Tuesday to Sunday, and closed all day Monday. Monday is when travellers most often get caught out, so put the Thomaskirche or a walk through the arcades on that day instead.

This is a well-known museum on the city’s busiest square, so don’t expect it to be empty. A visit in the morning works well with the area’s rhythm. Do the museum first, then go to the Thomaskirche for the afternoon. Check the Thomanerchor’s website for its motet performances.

For admission and any special exhibitions, the official museum website and the ticket desk inside are the reliable sources. In Advent, the Christmas market fills the Markt right up to the arcades, so expect a crowded square outside even when the galleries are calm.

The museum’s collection is spread across more than one site. If an object on your list isn’t in the town hall, ask at the desk which building it is in before you set off.