Wetzlar Travel Tip:
Historic Old Town
Historic Old Town Wetzlar
The tightly woven ensemble of historic buildings and houses in Wetzlar's Old Town (Altstadt) with its half-timbered houses and stone buildings from Romanesque (Wetzlar Cathedral) to Gothic to Renaissance and Baroque is to a great extent as it was in the late 18th century, preserved and extensively restored. You can see the great squares of Buttermarkt/Domplatz (Butter Market/Cathedral Square
), Fischmarkt (Fish Market
), Eisenmarkt (Iron Market
), Kornmarkt (Grain Market
), and the former Franziskanerhof (Franciscan Yard
), now called Schillerplatz. From the roughly 50 noteworthy historical buildings, a few are listed here:
- A straight-walled half-timbered house from 1356
- The
Old Coin
(Alte Münze) at the Iron Market - The
Roman Emperor
(Römische Kaiser) from the 15th century, a former theatre and ballroom - The former Teutonic Knights' Court (Deutschordenshof), today a town museum
- The Lottehaus, Charlotte Buff's house
- The Jerusalemhaus in which Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem shot himself, thus attaining sad fame as Werther
- The princely Palais Papius in which is nowadays found the collection of historical furniture gathered by Dr Irmgard Freiin von Lemmers-Danforth.
Also in the old outlying towns of Langgasse and Neustadt (
New Town
), connected to the Old Town by the Old Lahn Bridge (Alte Lahnbrücke), a number of historic buildings are preserved and are worth seeing. The New Town, however, has lost its mediaeval feel owing to its 20th-century four-lane streets. - The stone Alte Lahnbrücke was first mentioned in 1288. A building meant to serve as the town hall, built in the mid 14th century, it was used by the Reichskammergericht as their seat and offices from 1689 to 1806, after many remodellings.
- Considerable remains of the town's 13th- and 14th-century fortifications are still preserved, for instance a fortress tower known as the Schneiderturm (
Tailor's Tower
) or Säuturm (Sow's Tower
) - The Kalsmuntpforte (
Kalsmunt Gate
) which was the town gate for the earlier suburb of Silhofen, as well as great parts of the town wall.
[ Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetzlar#Historic_Old_Town ]
Related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetzlar#Historic_Old_Town
Address: 35578 Wetzlar
Tags: Wetzlar, Old Town, Historic Buildings
Location of Historic Old Town
More Wetzlar Travel Tips
Wetzlar, in central Hesse, features an amazingly well-preserved and restored Old Town (Altstadt), with historic plazas, a 13th century Cathedral (Dom) and scores of half-timbered houses. Choose one of several vacation homes in the Old Town itself!
Related: Wetzlar travel guide
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