Explore Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber's town hall combines a Gothic rear wing begun around 1250 with a Renaissance front added from 1572 after fire destroyed the earlier building. Visitors can climb 220 steps up the tower to a platform below its spire for views over the walled old town.

St. James's Church is Rothenburg ob der Tauber's Gothic parish church, built between 1311 and 1484 with two towers rising to around 55-58 metres. It holds Tilman Riemenschneider's Holy Blood altarpiece, carved around 1500 around a relic cross from 1270, as well as Friedrich Herlin's 1466 high altar and medieval stained glass in the east choir.

The Medieval Crime and Justice Museum occupies a former Dominican convent in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and traces 1,000 years of European legal history. Around 50,000 objects include punishment and torture instruments, shame masks, legal documents and judicial seals from the early Middle Ages to the 19th century.

Plönlein is a small triangular square where two cobbled lanes meet beneath a crooked half-timbered house, a well and two medieval gate towers: the Siebersturm and the Kobolzeller Tor of 1360. The view down the sloping lanes toward the Tauber valley is one of the most photographed scenes in Rothenburg ob der Tauber's old town.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber's town walls form a roughly 4-kilometre circuit with 42 towers, among the most complete in Germany. Built from 1172 and extended into the 14th century, much of the wall carries a covered wooden walkway that visitors can follow on foot, past gates such as the Rödertor and Spitaltor.

The Burggarten is a public park on the hill where Rothenburg ob der Tauber's medieval Staufer castle once stood until townspeople dismantled it for its stone, leaving only the Blasius Chapel. Laid out as an English-style garden, it has old trees, a rose garden with statues of the seasons, and viewpoints over the Tauber valley.