amazing street art in erfurt's old town.
every once in a while, when i am visiting my parents in thuringia, we make our way to erfurt, thuringia's capital. i used to spend a lot of time there during my apprenticeship and also throughout the first 20 years of my life - as erfurt was basically the nearest 'big city' for me. if you wanted to go shopping, you'd go there, if you wanted to go to the cinema, you'd go there, if you wanted to experience big cultural events, you'd go there. i never liked erfurt much when i was younger, it was too big for me, too loud, it felt charmless, cold even. by the time i was finishing school and started my apprenticeship in erfurt i didn't really care about it much. i decided that my favourite city in the whole of thuringia was weimar, because it had more 'class', had lots of palaces, more important history, had a much more appealing size and people seemed to be more creative.
the first 2 years of my apprenticeship i had to drive about 30 minutes to erfurt via bus and change into a cable car for another 20 minutes until i arrived at my work place. since public transport to erfurt from the country is pretty spotty ( the bus only drove to the city once an hour, and on some days like saturdays it was only every 2 hours ) and it didn't align with my working schedule sometimes, it left a window in which i often had to kill time in the city. i used that to go on walks and explore erfurt, and slowly this city started to grow on me. i fell in love with the old medieval city core mostly, i could spend hours exploring the little alleyways or finding green nooks in a sea of densely populated, narrow house rows. when i finished my apprenticeship and moved to wiesbaden, everytime i visited the city felt like coming home, looked even more gorgeous and beguiling. i noticed more details and corners that only magnified my endearment with the city. by now, erfurt doesn't look cold and boring and without class to me anymore, it has actually managed to rise up to a pretty high level. its history is probably as exciting as weimar's, it's just a different tune it is whistleing. and actually, it pretty much rocks that erfurt doesn't have the alleged class weimar has, that it sometimes even looks a little grimy and sterile, because that too has its history. and it is one that began to interest me in the past few years ( speaking of GDR high-rises etc. ).
now, i would put a tag on this city that says: super much approved, would visit again and again to learn some more and explore even the outer districts.
i think i underestimated this city by far when i was young, because over the years i haven't been living in thuringia anymore i found a complete new appreciation for erfurt. when i sometimes visit mainz, the neigboring big city of wiesbaden, i am reminded of erfurt as well ( they actually have deep historical bonds because erfurt was administrated by the diocese of mainz between 742 and 1821 ). while mainz got a lot more destroyed during the second world war and lost more of its medieval core than erfurt, the remaining streets still remind me of erfurt's city layout. also, mainz is a city of grimy concrete and 'ugly' corners as well, which is another detail that absolutely reminds me of erfurt. and throughout it all, there are patches of nature that leave you speechless, hiding in corners you least expect it. you also don't expect bold and futuristic experiments in both cities, but they prove you wrong and surprise you with exactly that, architecture that is controversial and mind-blowing at the same time.
let me take you on a little tour through erfurt's old city, which isn't so controversial, but really idyllic and charming.
erfurt's old city still looks like it stood still in various time eras, the reason is simple - it wasn't as heavily bombarded as other german cities! in fact, erfurt is one of the very few cities that still has a widely intact inner city.
this shop window look the same as in 1862 when the shop was opened, even though the owners changed. as i understand it, it still belongs to a glaziery, though julius dürrfeld should be long gone now.
behind the glass the displays show photos of the founding family and other little gimmicks that probably belonged to them. it's details like these that lend a small shop like this glaziery a special atmosphere, gives it a certain kind of oomph and character. the current shop owners probably are very proud of either their heritage or that they are able to continue the tradition in this special place. the big old german dictum says: ' the human needs peace'.
utterly beautiful shop sign! definitely shows the craftmanship and mastery of the glazier.
the river in the front is one of the many branches of the river gera, the biggest river running through erfurt. here it is called walkstrom. the brickstone building in the back is a former mill ( rabenmühle - raven mill, dating back to the 13th century ), now restaurant ( pier37 ) and the building in the front with the little balcony is a cafe called 'kleiner elefant' ( little elephant ).
walking along the walkstrom you get to experience a feeling as if you were in the middle of amsterdam. i've never been to amsterdam, but damn, do i imagine it like this? YES.
probably a former granary or magazine - currently a catholic conference center.
this little walled lane leads you to the erfurt cathedral and was formerly called 'pfaffengasse' ( pfaffe is a derogatory word for priest ). it was named like this because in this lane a lot of the cathedral's priests and clerics lived here. today it's called stiftsgasse ( which refers to the cathedral, which was basically an ecclesiastical endowment, in german 'stift' ).
there were some little cute houses near the stiftsgasse. they were close to another branch of the gera, the bergstrom.
those medieval glass windows get me every time 😍
reaching the walls of the cathedral's cloister. i think i have posted photos of the very photogenic st. mary's cathedral before, which is probably the reason i didn't care to go around and take the obligatory st. mary & st. severus church picture ;) this time our path lead us into a different direction, though, to the backside of it.
you need to know that st. mary's cathedral is not the only church building on that particular spot, there is another one sitting directly next to it. it is a very special situation that's pretty unique in germany. both churches are roman-catholic, and have always been of this confession ( except during the reformation, in which st. severus, the other church, was protestant for a few years ). i gathered, after doing a little bit of research, that both churches were built by two different saints, saint boniface and severus of ravenna ( who is still entombed in the church he helped building ). st. mary ( on the right ) was actually the older church ( 742 ) on the spot, st. severus ( on the left ) is younger ( first mentioned in 836, though it is debated whether it might even be older than st. mary's, since it is assumed there has been a monastery dedicated to st. paul around 700 where it now stands ). i guess because the dates of their origins are so unclear it has always been rather difficult to ascertain why there were two churches in one spot. it also seems that both of them were kind of going through a rivalry, even though both were roman catholic. it's even said that they had planned putting up boundary stones, so each of them could operate and rule independently from each other.
st. severus's backside.
the backsides of the two churches are not as impressive as their fronts, though, so, here's a link you can check out to see their actual chocolate sides ;) st. mary is by far the more glorious church ( the late gothic exterior of the 'hoher chor' is mainly responsible for this ) and it also owns more precious treasuries, but st. severus is not shabby either, and it bears witness of an older style, a mixture of romanesque and gothic ). how they look now is basically how they looked like ( with slight alterations throughout later centuries ) back in the 13th, 14th & 15th century when most of their construction happened.
i was in erfurt together with my mom, and we both decided to not tread the same worn out paths as usual. so we ended up at this place, which i haven't been to before, y'all? despite it being super close to the cathedral and the old city? it's the bergstrom again, but in a slightly more modern environment.
bastion kilian on petersberg hill.
where we often have been, though, is this place, one of the best places to get gorgeous views of the city: petersberg citadel. it's quite a remarkable structure, quite well preserved and huuuuuge. its size is 36 hectare and the walls it is surrounded by are about 2 kms in length. it was erected successively from 1665 on, when erfurt was ruled by the electorate of mainz. there's a labyrinth of underground tunnels and passages that you can visit by booking a tour. but even without the tour it is definitely worthwhile to explore the citadel. as erfurt underwent a few regimes and governments in its time, you can spot these influences in every corner of the structure. there's also a former church up there ( st. peter's church ), as the citadel was basically built on the grounds of a benedectine monastery. it entices with a 12th century romanesque appearance, though it misses its two original towers and is otherwise pretty unornamental. this church is now used as an exhibition space for modern art and sculptures.
the peterstor ( peter's gate ) and bastion kilian.
the gate forms an impressive entrance into the citadel, bearing the coat of arms of johann phillipp von schönborn, archbishop-elector of mainz. it is integrated in the commander's building. the bridge leading up to the gate is the petersbrücke. a little guard-house can also be seen on the left and you get a glimpse of the steigerwald, a small range of hills and woodland in the north of erfurt.
looking a bit more to the left reveals more of the 'steiger' and the ravelin peter, a fortification that helped keep away hostile troops from getting into the citadel more easy.
there's also modern architecture on top of the petersberg hill and within the citadel's walls. the glashütte ( glass factory ) is actually a restaurant, not a real glass factory. since it is pretty transparent and made with lots of glass and steel the name still rings true ;) it was built in 2004 by KLP architects.
the nazis also left their mark on the hill. they used the citadel for various units of their army and also as an internment center for political enemies. from here, they send a lot of prisoners straight to the concentration camps - preferably to weimar and mühlhausen, is my guess. this memorial on the walls of the internment building now reminds us all of this particular dark time period.
since petersberg citadel was under heavy construction when my mom and i visited, we didn't get closer to the peterskirche and the old barracks. the construction was due to the upcoming bundesgartenschau in 2021, where they want to use the petersberg citadel as the jewel of the national horticulture show.
so instead, we focussed on the views around us! the petersberg hill even has its own vineyard! this was shot towards the direction of the cathedral square and the old city. way in the back you see the high-rises of GDR times, they enclose the medieval city of erfurt.
view towards the steigerwald, more GDR buildings in the back, historical parts in the middle ( most prominent building being the 'neuwerkskirche' ) and tiny bits of modern/contemporary architecture in the front.
small rain showers accompanied us on our walk and one surprised us while we were up on the petersberg hill. it lasted not very long and while it was raining the sun returned again. i love these mixed weather situations. especially when you are up on a hill and watch it coming and going!
erfurt has a total of 77 historic churches, 22 of them are situated in the old city and another 5 that once were churches, but now are simply free-standing towers. locals call erfurt 'thuringian rome' or 'the city of church towers', as you can see bell towers in every direction. all the turrets and towers do define the city's landscape and it's one of my favourite details about it, too! add to that the belt of GDR architecture and you have quite a special town picture.
here you can see from left to right the bell towers of schottenkirche, aegidienkirche, allerheiligenkirche, the two turrets of the old city hall and the two towers of kaufmannskirche. the big white modern tower in the back is the radisson blu hotel ( formerly interhotel kosmos, 1972 - 1980 ). and even further back there are various listed and landmarked GDR high-rises on juri-gagarin-ring - all built in the 1960ies.
section shot of aegidienkirche, allerheiligenkirche, radisson blu hotel and the PH16 high-rises.
the roof and bell towers of st. severus church, directly behind it hides st. mary cathedral.
one of the most iconic views of erfurt is this one. you can have this vista if you stand on the leonhard bastion, close to the glashütte. it's seriously always breathtaking to see erfurt from here. it might not be frankfurt with its many skyscrapers, or any megacity in the world for that matter, but it's a special perspective, highlighting the beautiful old city core with both the churches on the domhügel ( cathedral hill ) on the right. the cathedral square is erfurt's biggest square and houses all kinds of festivals and special markets throughout the year. the christmas market for example is a highlight, though it is often prrrreeeettyyyyy crowded - with good reason, though, because the atmosphere is simply unique.
perfect contradictory confrontation: renaissance architecture in the front, GDR architecture in the back. the towers are a special housing unit called PH16, they were the GDR's version of habitable skyscrapers. PH16 stands for 'punkthochhaus mit 16 geschossen' ( high-rise blocks with 16 storeys ). the high-rise slab 'wohnscheibe c am löbertor' in front of the PH16s stands on juri-gagarin-ring again ( it's a ring road that's 2.3 km long ) and was built in 1984. there's also another church hidden in this picture, st. wigbert's.
detail shot of the wohnscheibe and some of the PH16s. i really love the design of the staircase modules. they look like cut-out pieces of mars or jupiter, right? i mean, i'd be sad if they really were, because that would mean we destroyed these planets ( which would prove again, that we are a horrible species 😕 ), but thank goodness it's not. it does look great, though!
also visible from the petersberg: the theater erfurt. it was built from 1999 to 2003, superseding the old opera on gorkistraße. the architect was jörg friedrich. oh, and there's yet another church hiding in this picture, can you spot it? ;) it's the martinikirche.
eventually we would continue our little walk and explored some more parts of the citadel - along bastion michael...
... and through the trenches between ravelin anselm and remains of some lunette fortifications, where trees turn the old military sternness into a sweet strolling experience.
the ravelin anselm bears a coat of arms that shows two wheels ( symbolic for the archbishopric of mainz ) and two crosses that stood for the tribe crest of the family of ingelheim. this was the coat of arms of anselm franz of ingelheim, elector of mainz.
view back towards bastion michael.
as we were walking back towards the old city we passed by the bastion martin. it once was attached to the citadel before it got separated by a road construction in 1920/21. this huge arch forms a entrance into the bastion where the city furnished it with accommodations for bats. which i totally condone, because bats are neat!
back in the city and on the fischmarkt ( fish market ). the houses on this square are some of the most beautiful renaissance buildings in all of erfurt, abundantly decorated with lots of ornaments and little statues. did you know that most buildings in the old city do have a name? here you can see the yellow 'haus zum roten ochsen' ( house to the red ox, 1562, first mentioned in 1392 ) which is seat of the erfurt art society, which explains the big announcement about an exhibition on bauhaus women ( WHICH I DIDN'T GET TO SEE - i am still inconsolable about missing out on this ). also, next to it on the left is the 'haus zur güldenen krone' ( house to the golden crown, former post office, 1564 ), which is a lot more modest compared to it. the smaller house further left is the 'ratskeller' ( cellar building belonging to the city hall dating back to the 13th century ). another house you see here is the solitary-seeming 'haus zur halben eisernen tür' ( house to the half ironclad door, also 15th or 16th century ). there are more beautiful houses on fischmarkt, click here and here to see the city hall, the gorgeous 'haus zum breiten herd' ( house to the wide stove ) and more. the statue is called 'römer' and depicts a roman warrior with the erfurt coat of arms in his hands. romans never were in erfurt, though, so it's pretty questionable why they put one up in this spot. maybe it has a connection to mainz, which actually had ties to the roman republic.
the most central square in erfurt is the longstretched anger square, which spans about 500 meter from start to end. this square has a turn-of-the-century feeling going on, as most of the buildings here were built around 1900. there are some relicts of older buildings on the square as well ( two medieval churches, some renaissance buildings ) and also various modern additions as well. but all in all, the grace of anger square are these wilhelminian beauties, built in historicizing fashion full of art nouveau elements. the house anger 23 was built in 1899, and is one of those gems you can find on the square. it's super playfully decorated, especially the portal is a sight to behold.
looking back at these pictures i want to immediately jump into the car and drive the 300-something kilometers to erfurt and do a city stroll all over again. this city is such a must-see in so many aspects. i miss it. and every so often i ask myself why i ever misjudged it as harsh, cold and boring in my teenage years. because it isn't. it's full of surprises, full of varied corners and places and history in every single spot. i don't know why it isn't a city of national importance yet, because it has everything it needs to be exactly that.
and that's that this time, stay curious ❤
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