empty mulled wine bar.
one day after christmas ( which i always spend with my family in thuringia in all quietness and without a lot of fuss ), we made our way to erfurt, to enjoy walking the streets during the holidays. as it actually has proven again and again, it is a pretty great idea to go on walks during christmas, because people visit their families and sit down around tables to eat big meals and afterwards are so lazy that they don't want to move a single bone, which in turn leaves the streets empty and quiet and essentially glowing in contemplative beauty - just perfect for anybody wanting to flee the stress of pre-christmas season.
and erfurt, my guys, it is such a gorgeous city, especially so during the season. i could revel forever in the sheer beauty that this city turns into every year, so full of atmosphere!
the krämerbrücke is always gorgeous to look at, but decked out in christmas lights and illuminated effectively it is even better 😍
the breitstrom flowing underneath the krämerbrücke.
on the bridge - a beautiful cozy atmosphere!
how can one not be in awe of cute little streets like that?
looking up and following the stars!
in one of the shop windows on the krämerbrücke you will find a special curiousity - the theatrum mundi. it's a mechanical puppet theatre in miniature format, which showcases a new fairytale every year! the carving artist martin gobsch is the creator of it and his prowess in this field is beyond magical! his figurines seem so alive and delicate and really are such a special thing to witness. next time i visit, i really want to capture the little scenery in the shop window, but unfortunately it often is surrounded by a cluster of people, and you know me, i dislike such things 😂 i should try to come very early, i guess!
the little theater works like this: you throw in a few euros and then it's going to start playing mechanically, the curtain will rise and the fairytale scenery will emerge. but even when the theater is closed, just looking at the beautiful queen figure is already a treat!
on the left, the entry onto the krämerbücke, on the right the one to the rathausbrücke. at the front of the stilleben shop ( a furniture shop ) musicians often gather to play beautiful tunes for passers-by, especially in the christmas season it happens a lot. lends the whole scene a cinematic quality - which i adore.
erfurt's most beloved mascot ( or better, my prefered mascot ;P ) - the puffbohne! the fava bean is a bean that had agricultural importance for erfurt, so it was perfect to serve as their mascot! i love it so much, you can't even imagine. its fuzzy, oval and minimal appearance is just really the most perfect thing to me! especially when everybody else always goes for big animals that have a dramatic back history, it is just simply refreshing to worship an everyday object, that serves as nourishment for human beings. these are the things we should be thankful and have a soft spot for ❤ i possess an angel fava bean, which hangs in my car and always watches me while i am driving. it kept me well and safe for years now! i don't believe in angels, but i believe in fava beans 😙 you can get them in all kinds of variations!
the city hall from a side alley of the fischmarkt. the big vitrified arcades are an absolute eye-catcher! inside you can find a restaurant actually, never visited it, though, and i am not sure if it's any good!
close to every street in the old city quarter has a special illumination going on during christmas time - this is the one on marktstraße.
view from fischmarkt plaza towards marktstraße...
... and back towards the city hall!
walking on marktstraße towards domplatz, passing by allerheiligenkirche! in this post from a few weeks back i already talked about this church, which has a peculiar layout.
nearing domplatz you can already see the severikirche. on domplatz you'll always find the main christmas market in erfurt, it's huuuuge and one of the most beautifully situated ones in the whole state of thuringia. it's also always packed to the brim! even on weekdays. the market is shut down, though, after the 23rd, the market suppliers also want to celebrate christmas with their loved ones, naturally ;)
only very few booths were still standing on the big square and of course the big christmas tree and pyramid. domplatz is one of the biggest squares in thuringia, with 3,5 hectares in size. lots of festivities are held here every year, giving space to 80.000 people at a time. the christmas market for example is able to draw 2,2 million guests every year for its monthly duration. one of the main attractions is always the big ferris wheel right next to the cathedral.
erfurt cathedral beautifully and dramatically illuminated! this cathedral is truly imposing with its gothic exterior and elevated position. allegedly first built in 752, the cathedral got its final appearance around 1350 - namely the gothic part of the building with the choir was built during that era. it is mounted on an artificial understructure, giving it a height of 60 to 80 meters above ground level.
the domestic architecture surrounding the domplatz on the east and south east date back to various epochs, from the 14th to 19th century. the house in the middle, the 'gasthaus zur hohen lilie' is erfurt's oldest roadhouse ( opened in 1341 ). its renaissance facade was built in 1538. on the left the 'grüne apotheke' ( green pharmacy ) from 1638 offers greek cuisine and on the right a more modern wilhelminian townhouse is the home of a little boutique hotel and a schnitzel restaurant.
strolling through the little streets of erfurt often comes with a few surprises, like discovering an iconic david bowie in a beautifully decorated shop window 😍
crossing the bergstrombrücke ( a bridge that spans the bergstrom - another branch of the gera river ).
this part of the old town is really beautiful with all its channels meandering through the city. here by the fischersand the walkstrom, yet another branch of the gera, creates an atmosphere almost worthy of venice ( at least judgding from images as i've never been to venice 😅 ).
restaurants and cafes are aplenty here, too, i couldn't imagine a more romantic environment to sit down and eat some good food or enjoy a coffee ❤ the restaurant pier 37 & the cafe 'kleiner elefant' can be seen on this photo.
at hirschgarten plaza, right at the entrance of the thuringian state chancellery, herms are holding the pillars of a balcony. the state chancellery and the headquarters of the thuringian prime minister are situated in a building that was once an lieutenancy of the electorate of mainz - a very influential electorate that reigned a big territory of germany. the building consists of several parts that once had been detached houses and were combined between the 16th and 18th century.
further down the road, on the end of the elongated part of the anger square you'll find the angerbrunnen, a fountain that represents erfurt's most important professions - the engineering & artisanry industry ( symbolized by a man with vise & hammer ) & agri- & horticulture ( symbolized by the goddess flora in the middle of spikes & roses ). it was created by heinrich stöckhardt in 1890.
the fountain stands in front of one very glorious building, designed in the neorenaissance style in 1899 by felix knorr. formerly it's been somewhat of a department store, but now it hosts a steakhouse.
this street is also part of the anger square, forming the more elongated section of it. at the other end it opens up widely and gives space to one of the old city's most important traffic intersection. from there cable cars can transport you to all the districts of erfurt in basically no time. the cable cars are the only way of transport through this part of erfurt, cars are banned, only delivery traffic is allowed. that means that pedestrians have free movement most of the time ( unless a cable car comes a-running ), making the square one of the biggest pedestrian areas of erfurt with almost 20.000 squaremeters at its disposal.
a lot of beautiful houses line the square on all sides, from modern simplicity to baroque playfulness you can find basically all styles of the last 5 centuries. the yellow one in the front ( probably from around the 1800s ) houses a private bookstore, buchhandlung peterknecht, which i remember being one of the best adresses for books in erfurt. i always loved foraging for books in here when i still lived in thuringia and had time on my hands before going to work during my apprenticeship. they offered a wide variety of sujets, from fiction of all kinds to more science-based books, from travel literature to comics and mangas. i think i would still recommend this bookstore to everyone visiting erfurt, it's just a real gem, and it's offering lots of readings and lectures as well, partaking in all kinds of book events.
a cute christmas tree on a boring facade!
i can never walk by this building without falling in love with it over and over again! built in 1899 the merchant's house is a gorgeous example of historism, as are the other two buildings you can see in this ensemble! the first one one the left was a brewery in the old times and the one in the middle is a tiny art nouveau gem, sandwiched neatly between the bigger two.
nearing the bigger part of the square, passing by another important adress in the city: the angermuseum. it's an art museum, situated in the former packing and weighing court of the mainz electorate.
the baroque city palais was erected from 1706 to 1711 by johann maximilian von welsch. its opulent facade makes it one of the most beautiful buildings on anger square ( but i couldn't really choose, as many houses here get the same label in my opinion :P ). the museum's oeuvre reaches from medieval art to 19th century and modern art. the museum was created in 1886 because of a donation made by the son of friedrich von nerly, a local famous painter!
finally, the square opens up a big space, and directs your view towards some distinct buildings - the hauptpost ( main post office ) and anger 1. built between 1882 and 1886 ( architects: august kind / julius carl raschdorff / and someone with the name klamodt) the hauptpost is a very striking and monumental building, i like its neogothic clinker facade and its tower!
on the other side of the hauptpost there's a totally different view, a big book store situated in a building from 2000! the angereck forms a real contrast inbetween all the historic buildings on the square, but oddly enough i've always been super smitten with it! the wide glass facade is not only looking cool in the night, during the day it can reflect the sky and the environment quite gorgeously! the architects rhode kellermann wawrowsky created a building that is very controversial in society though, some view it as too bulky and dominating.
the aforementioned anger 1 - a department store on a very prominent part of the anger square. it was originally designed by architects albert & ernst giese between 1906 and 1908 for the merchant family tietz who founded a wellknown department store company called hertie ( now incorporated into the karstadt imperium ) in 1886. the neorenaissance building has lots of art nouveau elements incorporated into its design, making it look very exquisite and expensive. historically though, it never really was too expensive for erfurt citizens, most of the time you could buy all kinds of goods from clothing to food to stationery at reasonable prices, during all decades of its existence. in 2000 an additional building was added to the back of the old department store, a modern parking garage. also part of the ensemble is the karstadt sports store on the right, it too was added in 2000. the architects for these new buildings were the same who built the angereck: RKW.
an often overlooked but definitely very awesome building is the dhv-haus - erfurt's very first high-riser ( 21 meters, it was way higher than the average height of buildings in the city back then! ). built in 1929 by heinrich herrling it clearly boasts the succinct elements bauhaus architecture is widely known for - rounded bay sections, minimal windows & clear lines. now a shop and office building it has been a policlinic in historic times.
the final jewel of today's post is another museum which you can find on johannesstraße. the city museum 'haus zum stockfisch' exhibits everything that has to do with the history of the city, from medieval times to the industrial history of the 19th century! the house itself is a late renaissance gem from 1607 and was once a woad merchant's office building. the chessboard pattern on the lower part of the facade is richly decorated with scrollwork and makes it pop out against all the other houses in the street. as with many museums in erfurt, i never entered this one, but would surely love a day's browse through it now!
maybe i'll express that wish the next time i am back in thuringia, to return to erfurt again and maybe have an inside look into many of the buildings i wrote about here ( especially the museums ). for example i don't even know anymore what the cathedral or st. severi look like from within! i know i've been in there at some point, but somehow it's been so long now that i remember not a lot anymore.
erfurt has a lot to offer for any visitor, that's for sure. while in my teens i was less smitten with this city, nowadays i am an absolute erfurt afficionado! there's so much to see and learn and be charmed by, and sometimes i question my teenage brain for ever thinking that erfurt is ugly, boring and without any magic. the opposite is true!
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