 | Erfurt Things To Do | Tips 1 - 10 of 180 |  |
Popular Things To Do | Other Things To Do Tips | All Tips (180) Above Erfurt there is a citadel, called Petersberg. It used to be a monastery first and was later transformed into barracks for soldiers.It's huge and you have a great view over the cathedral and Erfurt.There are many underground passages, very narrow, which had been used as escape routes in case of a siege. Erfurt Tourist Information offers guided walks into these passages, the only light coming from torches. I mean the ones with real fire, not a flashlight.We did this walk and really enjoyed it.Not everybody gets to carry a torch, but there is enough light to see. You have to walk in a single file as it's so narrow. Sometimes you can look up and see escape chimneys, even narrower. I felt a lot of pity for the poor soldiers who had to climb out there, wearing their heavy armour, not knowing what would await them once they're out there.
Today the tunnels are safe, provided people are careful with their torches. You may encounter a few bats and mice and the occasional spider, but apart from this it's quite safe.
It's a great walk for kids! There were several in our group and they all loved it. Of course they all wanted to carry a torch.
For those of you who have watched the movie The Lord of the Rings: Sometimes we felt we're right in the middle of it.
This walk costs 6,50 Euro per adult, 3,50 for kids/students. It's absolutely worth it.
Make sure you wear good shoes and bring a jacket. And you shouldn't be too claustrophobic.
We were able to get tickets one hour prior to the walk, but we were told it's safer to book ahead. Leave a Comment Address: Meet at the tourist information
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One of the goods which had made Erfurt rich and famous as a trading town was the dyer's-weed woad.
It grew in the woods around the town, was collected, ground,dried and formed into small balls. These balls had to be in barrels for several months, covered with urine ! to give them a nice, blue colour.So instead of going to the toilet people there went to the barrels. Some hotel owners even made money by selling the contents of their chamberpots.During my last visit in Erfurt I learned that it had to be male urine. Female urine didn't work.
How does anybody find out about this?? I mean, you see a green plant . How does anybody get the idea that these green leaves will make a nice, blue colour when , well, you know what I mean. I guess, I'd never make a good inventor.
These barrels were kept in the attics and it must have been a VERY smelly affair. This is why these attics had a lot of windows, certainly a lot more than any normal house.
Today this house is a theatre. It has been thouroughly aired. Leave a Comment Address: Grosse Arche
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The citadel is not only interesting in its underground passages, but also from the outside. You can walk around and enjoy the view. There are canons standing around and you can still see the many look-outs. The citadel was never conquered.
The draw bridge has been turned into a cobble stoned street now, but you can still see the main gate with the spiked fence coming out of the ceiling. Next to the drawbridge there is a small door. This was used for latecomers, so that they soldiers didn't have to let the bridge down for just one person. When you look up inside the main gate, you can see holes in the ceiling. From there unwelcome people were covered with hot water. Not a very friendly way to get rid of unwelcome guests. Leave a Comment Address: Above the cathedral square
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Inside the cathedral in Erfurt you see a candleholder which looks like a man. It's mansize and he is holding up his arms with a large candle in each of them. This is Wolfram. He was a man in 12th century who must have been some kind of criminal. The citizens of Erfurt were very angry with him and sentenced him to stand in front of the cathedral, holding two heavy candles in his arms. By this they wanted to make sure he'd "see the light". You can imagine how heavy the candles must have been and how difficult and painful this must have been for him. After a few Sundays the citizens took pity on him and allowed him to have a candleholder made which looked like him. He had it done in bronze and it's said to have been first free-standing
bronze statue in Germany. Leave a Comment Address: Inside the cathedral
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When I first heard about gossip stones I thought it was something to punish gossipers.
But people in Erfurt were much nicer than my thoughts. They knew, people would stop and gossip, no matter what . So they had these gossip stones built at their houses. There are two stones, shaped like a chair, one right and one left of the front door. Instead of having to stand while gossiping, probably with heavy baskets full of shopping, the gossipers could just sit down and enjoy talking about who had done what with whom.
These gossiping stones can be seen at several of the old houses in Erfurt. Leave a Comment
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On some of the old houses in Erfurt you see holes above the doors, about 20 cm in diameter. They are called beer holes, because they were made to show passer-bys when the beer was brewed and ready to drink. If you've read my tip about the woad, you know that the woad traders needed lots of urine. One way to make sure you have enough of this valuable liquid is to drink lots of beer. So the woad traders also started a beer brewing business. They took turns and to indicate which brewery is ready to serve beer, they stuck straw into these beer holes. Leave a Comment Address: All around the old town
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Erfurt University once had a famous student: Martin Luther studied there for four years, from 1501 to 1505. Then, after he was almost hit by lightning he changed his plans for the future and became a monk instead. The monastery he chose was the Augustinerkloster, also in Erfurt. At this time, there were three different monasteries in Erfurt. Supposedly Luther chose the Augustinerkloster because there he could continue his studies.
There are references to Luther throughout Erfurt:
On the main shopping square there is statue of him, the monastery offers walks on the premises which include the room he once had and you can visit several churches in which he had been preaching.
The tour guides of the tourist information can do a "Luther walk", but this is only possible for group bookings. It's usually students of theology who book them.
Even without a special walk, just being in the very same church that Martin Luther once preached in makes history come alive. Leave a Comment Address: Augustinerstrasse for the monastery
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Again, I like to look for the smaller details. To me, there are more interesting than the huge cathedral as such. On the main door to the cathedral you see a doorknocker in the shape of a lion.You can see this more often, but this one here happens to be eating a man. I don't know if there is some medieval significance to it or if the artist simply liked to add this detail for some extra thrill.
Update March 2008:
I learned from a priest at the cathedral that there are two possible explanations:
1. It says in the bible - 1 Peter,5,8 - that the devil is like a lion, trying to devour mankind. So if a lion eating a man is part of the door knocker, the medieval artists were trying to say."If you don't want to be eaten by a lion = devil, enter this church here.
2. If the lion's mane is shaped like the sun, then it's not just a lion but a symbol for the sun = light = God. Especially when the lion is sculptured so much bigger than the man he's eating, this was supposed to tell the people how much bigger God is than mankind.
So again, as with many symbolic sculptures, several possible and sometime contradictory explanations. Leave a Comment Address: On the door of the cathedral
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At the square Fischmarkt there is a beautiful red house with the strange name Zum Breiten Herd - House of the wide stove. Its whole facade is beautifully ornamented and just above the name there is a row of stuccos showing the five senses. Someone looking into a mirror for seeing, someone playing music for hearing etc.
There are some really strange names for houses in Erfurt. The wide stove, well, maybe someone in 16th century had bought a new stove and was talking about nothing else? So his friends got tired about it and started calling his house the wide stove??
Update from January 07: My daughter thought of a new explanation for the name "house of the wide stove". In German, wide is "breit", but if you add an e, you have "bereit", meaning ready. Maybe this was the house of the ready stove. Visitors are always welcome, the stove is always ready for you?? Who knows?
Another house is called To the Big Red Bottle. A lover of red wine was living there?? I think it's fun to think of explanations for these weird names. Leave a Comment Address: Fischmarkt
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This is a large house, standing on the Anger, the square in the centre of Erfurt. Its German name is "Haus zur grünen Aue und zum Kardinal". I don't know where this name comes from. About two hundred years ago a famous guest was sleeping there, Russian Tzar Alexander. Today it's a café and an ice-cream parlour.I must admit, when I saw the two statues on the roof, my first thought was one of them was eating ice cream. It was a very hot day in July and everybody was eating ice cream, so it just seemed possible to me. But of course, it's a torch she's holding, not an ice cream cone. Leave a Comment Address: on the Anger, in the centre of the town
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- Grand Hotel Am Dom Erfurt
Theaterplatz 2 Formerly Grand Hotel Am Dom Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany - Hotel Zumnorde Am Anger
Anger 50 - 51 / Weitergasse 26, Erfurt, Germany - Hotel Garni Daberstedt
Buddestrasse 2, Erfurt, Germany - Hotel Elephant
Markt 19, Erfurt, Germany - Bw Hotel Der Lindenhof
Schoene Aussicht 5, Erfurt, Germany - Dorint Erfurt 4
Meienbergerstrasse 26-27 (formerly Dorint Erfurt), Erfurt, Germany - Am Kaisersaal
Futterstrasse 8, Erfurt, Germany - Hilton Weimar
Belvedere Allee 25 (formerly Hilton Weimar), Erfurt, Germany - Rm Berg- Und Jagdhtl Gabelbach
Waldstrasse 23a, Erfurt, Germany - Romantik Hotel Dorotheenhof
Dorotheenhof 1, Erfurt, Germany - Country Inn Erfurt Apfelstadt
Riedweg 1, Erfurt, Germany - Sorat Hotel Erfurt (Gotthardstrasse 27 )
Gotthardstrasse 27, Erfurt, Germany - Ibis - Erfurt
Barfusserstrasse 9, Erfurt, Germany - Dorint Sofitel Am Goethepark
Beethovenplatz 1-2, Erfurt, Germany - Dorint Erfurt
Meienbergerstrasse 26-27 (formerly Dorint Erfurt), Erfurt, Germany
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on September 19, 2006
