Stadtmauer Rothenburg: Rothenburg ob der Tauber Travel Guide

A roof over your head, a town at your feet

The wall walk is a corridor in the sky. A timber roof shelters a narrow plank walkway, and the stone parapet on your outer side is broken by arrow slits. On the inner side, the steep red-tiled roofs and half-timbered gables of Rothenburg ob der Tauber sit close enough to read the window boxes.

Rothenburg’s fortifications date largely from the 13th to 16th centuries. Their survival is the reason the town looks the way it does. Down in the lanes you are one face in the crowd. Up here, a single file of walkers spreads people out, and the wall often feels like the quietest way to see the old town.

Climbing up at the Rödertor

You can reach the walkway from staircases at several of the gate towers. The most practical is at the Rödertor on the east side, right by Röderschütt. Coming from Rothenburg ob der Tauber train station, it is the first gate you reach, around a 10 to 15 minute walk west through the newer part of town.

Most trains arrive via a change at Steinach (bei Rothenburg). Drivers should use the numbered car parks just outside the walls rather than trying to drive into the old town.

Other good access points:

• Galgentor (Gallows Gate), north-east, on the main road towards the Marktplatz
• Klingentor, north-west, near St. Wolfgang’s Church
• Spitalbastei, the large bastion at the southern tip, below the Plönlein

The wall is open 24 hours, every day. The stairs are steep stone or wooden flights with no lifts, so the walkway is not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.

The route around the ramparts

The covered walk runs most of the way around the town. One clear gap is the western edge above the Tauber valley, where the cliff did the defending. From the Rödertor, most people head south, and a relaxed walk to the Spitalbastei takes around an hour with stops.

What you pass on the way:

• Röderturm, the gate tower beside your starting point, which can be climbed in season for a view straight down the Rödergasse
• Long, straight sections where the roof beams frame the town’s rooftops like a series of photographs
• Spitalbastei, a multi-level bastion with gun ports and its own courtyards
• Short drops back to street level near the Plönlein, the tilted little square with the yellow half-timbered house

The beams are low in places, so tall walkers will be ducking often. Two people can only just pass each other on the planks, so step into a gap to let others by.

Names in the stone

Look down at the parapet as you walk. Hundreds of small stone plaques carry names, towns and countries. Some honour families and companies, and some come from as far away as the United States and Japan.

They date from the rebuilding after March 1945, when an air raid destroyed a large part of the eastern old town and a long section of wall. Donors around the world paid for the reconstruction by the metre, and the plaques record who paid for each stretch. The repair is easy to spot once you know to look: the stone is lighter, and the names cluster thickly along the eastern side near the Rödertor.

Beating the day-trippers up on the wall

Timing matters more here than almost anywhere in town. Rothenburg fills up when the coach groups arrive. On weekends, the wall is quietest between 9am and 12pm, so start at the Rödertor straight after breakfast. Try not to arrive between 2pm and 10pm on a weekend: that is when it is busiest, and the narrow planks stop moving freely.

A few habits help:

• Keep to the right and walk in single file
• Stop for photos in the bastion corners and at the gate towers, not in the middle of the walkway
• Speak quietly. Residents live in the houses directly below, some only an arm’s length from the parapet
• Keep a firm grip on phones and cameras over the inner edge, because anything dropped lands in someone’s garden

Because the wall never closes, an early-morning walk before the shops open gives you the rooftops almost to yourself.

Before and after the wall

You don’t need a separate plan for the rest of town, because the gates drop you right into it. From the Spitalbastei, it is a short walk north to the Plönlein, then up the Schmiedgasse to the Marktplatz and its Town Hall. The Town Hall tower has the highest view in Rothenburg.

Finish at the Burggarten, the garden on the site of the old castle at the western end of town. Its edge looks over the Tauber valley and the Double Bridge, which is the one view the wall walk doesn’t give you.

In the evening, the Night Watchman’s tour sets off from the Marktplatz. It fills in the history of the walls you walked earlier.