Nördlingen Old Town

Nördlingen's old town is almost perfectly round and sits in the middle of a meteorite crater: the Nördlinger Ries, formed by an impact around 15 million years ago. A fully preserved town wall encloses its lanes, half-timbered houses and churches, and above it all rises the tower known as the Daniel. Few towns in Germany show their medieval layout as clearly, best seen from the wall or from the tower.

History: a trade-fair town in a crater

Nördlingen is first mentioned in 898. From the time the Hohenstaufen Frederick II granted it town rights until 1802, it was a Free Imperial City. Its position on two major trade routes, Frankfurt–Augsburg and Nuremberg–Ulm, made it rich: the Whitsun fair, first recorded in 1219, was one of the most important long-distance fairs in Germany. The present wall was built in 1327, quadrupling the town's area, and work on St George's Church began in 1427.

The Thirty Years' War and shifting trade routes brought decline. Because there was little money for new buildings afterwards, the townscape survived. From 1984 to 1993 Nördlingen was on Germany's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage, together with Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

The town wall

The wall is about 2.6 km long and among the best preserved in Germany. Its covered wall-walk runs all the way round, so you can circle the entire old town on top of it.

• Five gates: Berger Tor, Baldinger Tor, Löpsinger Tor, Deininger Tor and Reimlinger Tor.
• Towers and bastion: eleven further towers and the fully preserved Alte Bastei.
• Town wall museum: in the Löpsinger Tor tower, with a model of the old town and a tin-figure model of the Battle of Nördlingen.

The Daniel and the market square

The tower of the late-Gothic St George's Church is 89.9 m high. 350 steps lead to the viewing gallery at just over 70 m, from where you can make out the crater rim as a ring of hills. In the room below, a tower watchman still works today, a job that survives in only a handful of European towns. Every evening between 22:00 and midnight he calls "So G'sell so" over the rooftops every half hour. A legend links the call to an attempted attack in 1440; a practical purpose is more likely: the watchmen used it to show each other they were awake.

North of the church lies the market square. The Brot- und Tanzhaus of 1442–1444 served cloth merchants during the fair, the half-timbered Metzig of 1363 the butchers. The town hall, documented as early as 1313, has been used as such since 1382. Opposite stands the Gasthaus zur Sonne of 1350, where emperors, Goethe in 1788 and the Apollo astronauts in 1970 stayed.

Living in a crater

Many houses, the church and parts of the wall are built of suevite, a rock created by the impact that contains tiny diamonds of no commercial value. The Ries Crater Museum, in a barn from around 1503, explains how the crater formed. It also displays genuine moon rock, on permanent loan from NASA, which sent the Apollo 14 astronauts to train in the Ries in 1970 because the rock resembles the lunar surface.

Tripto tips

• Timing: allow 3 to 5 hours for the wall, the Daniel, the market square and one museum.
• Order: start with the wall to understand the layout, then climb the Daniel. Tower hours sometimes change, so ask at the tourist information on the market square.
• Evening: stay until 22:00 if you want to hear the watchman's call.
• Combine: Harburg Castle on the south-eastern edge of the Ries is a short drive away.