TOP 21 best attractions in Nuremberg

The city of medieval archi­tec­ture, which has risen from the ash­es of the World War II bomb­ings, attracts thou­sands of tourists. They come to see the sights of Nurem­berg. Numer­ous muse­ums cater to vis­i­tors with dif­fer­ent inter­ests. Goth­ic church­es and tem­ples, which have become silent wit­ness­es of epochal events, will inter­est his­to­ry buffs.

Architecture

Fortress Kaiserburg

The for­ti­fi­ca­tion was built around 1050 by Hen­ry III, and his heir, Emper­or Con­rad, mod­ern­ized the appear­ance of the fortress in the 1140s. Today, the cas­tle oper­ates as a muse­um ded­i­cat­ed to the Kaiser­burg. You can get inside through the Fes­t­ner Gate.

The dom­i­nant archi­tec­tur­al struc­ture is a two-sto­ry palace in the Romanesque style. The monarch and his fam­i­ly lived on the upper floor, and the ser­vants lived on the low­er floor. It is also worth vis­it­ing the round tow­er of the XIV cen­tu­ry, on top of which there is an obser­va­tion deck. In the court­yard there is a well that goes about 50 m deep.

Holy Spirit Hospital

The hos­pi­tal, built in 1332, is locat­ed in the his­tor­i­cal part of the city. The mas­sive struc­ture seems to grow out of the Peg­nitz Riv­er. Its inner court­yard is dec­o­rat­ed with a wood­en gallery, and sym­bols of the Roman Empire are pre­served on the walls of one of the build­ings. The hos­pi­tal now hous­es a nurs­ing home and a restau­rant.

Documentation Center of NSDAP Party Congresses

Nurem­berg was Hitler’s favorite city. A whole dis­trict was built here for the needs of his par­ty. The main build­ing was the Palace of Con­gress­es, built on the mod­el of the famous Colos­se­um in Rome. The build­ing of cyclo­pean dimen­sions appeared in the mid-1930s.

Today, the muse­um “Nazi Doc­u­men­ta­tion Cen­ter” is locat­ed in the north wing. He tells about the ori­gin of the fas­cist move­ment and its ter­ri­ble con­se­quences.

Market Square

There are always a lot of onlook­ers on the medieval square in the his­tor­i­cal part of the city. Sev­er­al times a week, a farm­ers’ mar­ket is open here, and in ear­ly Decem­ber, the Christ­mas mar­ket, known through­out Europe, opens.

On the east side of the square stands the Goth­ic church of the Vir­gin Mary. It is famous for its ancient fig­urines that are set in motion by the strik­ing of the clock on the facade. Here you can see the “Beau­ti­ful Foun­tain”. It is believed that if you touch the bronze ring on its lat­tice and make a wish, it will cer­tain­ly come true.

House of Nassau

The house is a mas­sive Goth­ic tow­er. Built in the 12th cen­tu­ry, it is con­sid­ered the old­est in Nurem­berg.

An ele­gant bal­cony, sculp­tures and balustrades appeared in the 15th cen­tu­ry. They made the appear­ance of the build­ing less strict and very sim­i­lar to the tow­er-hous­es in Italy. For sev­er­al cen­turies, Nas­sau was pri­vate­ly owned by aris­to­crat­ic fam­i­lies, and now belongs to the city.

Mauthalle building

The build­ing was built in the 15th cen­tu­ry accord­ing to the design of the then famous archi­tect G. Behaim. It received a sonorous name in 1572, when it housed a cus­toms office (the word Maut means “col­lec­tion of mon­ey”). Dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, the build­ing was com­plete­ly destroyed and then restored. Now it hous­es offices and a restau­rant.

Tucherschloss Castle

The cas­tle was built in the 16th cen­tu­ry for the wealthy Tuher fam­i­ly. Thanks to their mon­ey, its rep­re­sen­ta­tives quick­ly achieved the patron­age of those in pow­er and mem­bers of the roy­al fam­i­ly.

On the facade of the build­ing, the fea­tures of neo-Goth­ic and Ital­ian Renais­sance are guessed. The house still belongs to the descen­dants of the Tuher fam­i­ly, although a pub­lic muse­um oper­ates in its halls. It con­tains paint­ings, fur­ni­ture, dish­es, tex­tiles and antiques from past eras. The entourage recre­ates the chic life of high soci­ety as much as pos­si­ble.

Museums

Albrecht Dürer House Museum

The famous artist has always enjoyed the favor of the author­i­ties and the rich — there was no end to orders. In 1509, he bought an old 4‑storey house right next to the walls of the fortress. The mas­ter lived here for 20 years with his wife, moth­er and appren­tices.

The low­er floors are made of sand­stone, and the upper ones are made in the fach­w­erk tech­nique. Luck­i­ly, dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, the house was not dam­aged, and the author­i­ties opened a muse­um in it ded­i­cat­ed to Dür­er and his works.

National Museum

This muse­um is one of the rich­est not only in Ger­many, but also in the world. More than 1 mil­lion items are stored in its funds, start­ing from the Stone Age and up to the end of the 19th cen­tu­ry. The gal­leries are locat­ed in the build­ing of the abol­ished Carthu­sian monastery. Paint­ings, sculp­tures, weapons, jew­el­ry, archae­o­log­i­cal finds, tex­tiles, medieval books and antiques are exhib­it­ed here.

Museum of the German Railways

The first rail­way in Ger­many was laid in Nurem­berg and went to the city of Fürth. The emer­gence of a the­mat­ic muse­um in 1899 was only a mat­ter of time. Impres­sive exhibits are stored here: the per­son­al car­riage of the Bavar­i­an king, the old­est loco­mo­tive in Ger­many and a high-speed train from the mid-1930s that con­nect­ed Berlin and Ham­burg. In addi­tion, 160 more types of rail­way trans­port are pre­sent­ed here.

New Museum of Art and Design

The muse­um, opened in 2000, will appeal to those who are inter­est­ed in con­tem­po­rary art in all its diver­si­ty. The huge glass façade, which lets in as much nat­ur­al light as pos­si­ble, is often used by artists as an art space to dis­play gigan­tic instal­la­tions.

The floors with spa­cious halls are con­nect­ed by a spi­ral stair­case resem­bling a twist­ed rib­bon. Inside, exhibits are exhib­it­ed from the 1950s to the present day. These are paint­ings, sculp­tures, instal­la­tions and mas­ter­pieces of indus­tri­al design. In addi­tion to per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions, the New Muse­um reg­u­lar­ly hosts tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions, lec­tures and pre­sen­ta­tions.

Museum at the Fembo House

The Fem­bo House, made in the late Renais­sance style, is one of the few res­i­den­tial build­ings that sur­vived the bomb­ing of World War II. Ini­tial­ly, the build­ing was built by order of the mer­chan­t’s fam­i­ly, and lat­er a print­ing work­shop was locat­ed with­in its walls. The house got its name in hon­or of the last own­er — George Fem­bo, who lived here in the 19th cen­tu­ry.

Today, there is a muse­um here that tells about the cul­ture, tra­di­tions and mate­r­i­al her­itage of Nurem­berg over its almost 1000-year his­to­ry.

In the music gallery you can enjoy the works of promi­nent com­posers. There is a hall ded­i­cat­ed to out­stand­ing sci­en­tists and artists. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est are the rooms in which the inte­ri­or of the 1600s is recre­at­ed. Fur­ni­ture and tex­tiles impress with ele­gance. The pearl of the col­lec­tion is a hand-carved wood­en mod­el of the his­tor­i­cal part of the city.

Toy Museum

The muse­um, opened in 1971, occu­pies a 3‑storey French Renais­sance man­sion. On the low­er lev­el, antique toys made of wood and met­al are exhib­it­ed: dolls, minia­ture hous­es with amaz­ing detail, wind-up toys and an impres­sive mod­el of an old rail­way.

Toys made after 1945 were placed on the upper floors. The main exhibits are rare Bar­bie dolls and the first Lego con­struc­tors. There is also a large play area for chil­dren: they are offered sets for cre­ativ­i­ty and exper­i­ments, board and inter­ac­tive games, plush ani­mals of all stripes. Any child can try him­self as a doc­tor, fire­fight­er or builder.

Communication Museum

The expo­si­tions intro­duce var­i­ous types of com­mu­ni­ca­tion that have influ­enced the devel­op­ment of mankind. In total, about 500 rare items are exhib­it­ed here.

This is the first tele­graph, old mod­els of tele­phones and tele­vi­sions. There is a selec­tion of unusu­al postage stamps and oth­er things that have helped peo­ple to estab­lish the process of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, regard­less of dis­tance. Many stands are inter­ac­tive, which delights young vis­i­tors.

Religious sites

Church of Saint Sebald

The neo-goth­ic church glo­ri­fy­ing Sebald, the patron saint of Nurem­berg, is an organ­ic long-term con­struc­tion. The naves and tow­ers were built in the 13th cen­tu­ry, and the altar hall in the 14th.

The ash­es of the saint rest in the tomb of the tem­ple. The height of the grave­stone, cre­at­ed in 1510 accord­ing to the design of the famous sculp­tor Fis­ch­er, is about 4 m. The com­po­si­tion is com­ple­ment­ed by bronze fig­ures depict­ing scenes from the life of Sebald.

You should also pay atten­tion to the amaz­ing stained-glass win­dows in the huge arched win­dows and the majes­tic columns sup­port­ing the vault­ed ceil­ing.

Church of Saint Lawrence

The tem­ple, built in the 15th cen­tu­ry, is a ref­er­ence embod­i­ment of the late neo-Goth­ic. The entrance is dec­o­rat­ed with a giant rose win­dow with carved orna­ments, and the tow­ers on the sides of the entrance are crowned with weath­er­vanes.

The Church of St. Lawrence was the first in Ger­many to con­vert to Lutheranism. Unlike oth­er tem­ples, its inte­ri­or remained intact, the exte­ri­or also avoid­ed alter­ations. Among the objects of inter­est inside are the stat­ue “The Greet­ing of the Angel” by the mas­ter Stoss and the taber­na­cle adorned with pre­cious stones.

Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche)

This church is the most pop­u­lar attrac­tion in Nurem­berg, known far beyond its bor­ders. The tem­ple was built in 1352 and its Goth­ic façade is replete with many dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments. Among the carved orna­ments, arch­es and tur­rets, the Männlein­laufen clock stands out in par­tic­u­lar. Installed in 1506, they still work prop­er­ly.

Every day at noon, with the chim­ing of chimes, 7 fig­urines of elec­tors appear one after anoth­er from minia­ture met­al doors. In a mechan­i­cal dance around Emper­or Charles IV, they take the oath. An amaz­ing per­for­mance steadi­ly gath­ers crowds of tourists. They take posi­tions clos­er to the church in advance to film the Männlein­laufen in action.

Parks and fountains

Zoo

The Nurem­berg Zoo is one of the largest in Europe. On the ter­ri­to­ry of more than 70 hectares, sev­er­al hun­dred species of ani­mals and birds from all over the world live.

The zoo was built on the site of a for­mer sand pit. The man-made land­scape was not touched, but adapt­ed for the inhab­i­tants. Ditch­es, stones, steep slopes not only serve as a nat­ur­al fence, but also form a com­fort­able habi­tat for ani­mals, as close as pos­si­ble to nat­ur­al con­di­tions. Here you can meet lions, tigers, leop­ards, bears and oth­er preda­tors.

Spa­cious enclo­sures are equipped for her­bi­vores. Giraffes, deer, wild hors­es feel very com­fort­able. And rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the ichthy­ofau­na and amphib­ians live in the cov­ered pavil­ions.

“Marriage Carousel”

The foun­tain, installed on Lud­wig­platz in 1984, caused a mixed reac­tion from the towns­peo­ple. The sculp­tur­al com­po­si­tion by J. Weber depicts fam­i­ly life with­out embell­ish­ment, with its every­day and almost inti­mate moments.

As a basis, the mas­ter took the poem by H. Zags “Bit­ter­sweet Mar­riage Life”. Those who are going to tie the bonds of Hymen should def­i­nite­ly vis­it the square and see what might await them in the future.

City Park

The cozy cham­ber park was found­ed in 1759, and almost a hun­dred years lat­er it was com­plete­ly remade, turn­ing it into a mir­a­cle of Eng­lish-style land­scape design. Shady alleys lead to the cen­ter of the park, where there is a man-made pond with ducks.

The main dec­o­ra­tion of the pic­turesque ter­ri­to­ry is the baroque foun­tain “Nep­tune”, a com­plete copy of the foun­tain in Peter­hof.

The orig­i­nal was bought in 1797 by Emper­or Paul I for an unheard-of sum at that time — in the mod­ern equiv­a­lent of about 8 mil­lion dol­lars. A copy, cast 105 years lat­er, stood on the Mar­ket Square, but in the ear­ly 1960s the com­po­si­tion was moved to the City Park.

“Beautiful” fountain

The mar­ket square is dec­o­rat­ed with an unusu­al 19-meter foun­tain, the shape of which resem­bles a church dome. It is believed that this is the dome of the Frauenkirche, which the local author­i­ties nev­er put up in its prop­er place. The foun­tain was opened in 1396. This was an epoch-mak­ing event in the life of the towns­peo­ple — after all, they had unhin­dered access to clean water.

The com­po­si­tion con­sists of four tiers with stone stat­ues. The low­er one is a medieval idea of ​​the place of the human­i­ties in human life. The sec­ond housed evan­ge­lists and church­men. The third was known to the elec­tors and offi­cials, and at the top there is a stat­ue of Moses and 7 prophets.