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Rothenburg ob der Tauber
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ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER
, which is some 60km south of Wurzburg, is the most famous and most visited medieval town in Germany, and although it's very beautiful, it has been reduced to the ultimate museum-piece, with nearly half its working population employed in the tourist trade. Nonetheless, it should still merit at least one overnight stop: the only way to get this place to yourself is to stay the night and go out, either early in the morning or in the evening, when the crowds are absent.
Perched on a promontory 90m above the River Tauber, Rothenburg was a prosperous Free Imperial City in medieval times, but suffered a spectacular slump in its fortunes as it found itself cut off from the new trading routes and reduced to a very provincial market town. Without money to expand or erect new buildings, it vegetated until the nineteenth century, when its self-evident attraction for the Romantic movement led to the enforcement of preservation orders. In 1945, part of the town suffered severe damage in an American air raid. Thankfully, a civilian working for the US army, J.J. McCloy (later the High Commissioner to Germany), knew and loved Rothenburg, and lobbied successfully for it to be spared from further bombing. Money to pay for its restoration subsequently poured in from abroad, and it was soon returned to its former appearance. Nowadays, its conservation policies are the strictest in Germany: even the biggest international chains are obliged to use traditional wrought-iron shop signs instead of corporate logos Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Germany,
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