Freiburg City Guide

Minster, Bächle & Schlossberg

To begin, the quiet memorial on the Platz der Alten Synagoge, whose mirror of water traces the outline of the synagogue destroyed in 1938. From the medieval Martinstor to the Münsterplatz, where the weekday market bustles around Gothic architecture's most beautiful tower, with the bright-red Historical Merchants' Hall opposite. On to the Augustiner Museum for the minster's original gargoyles, then follow the Bächle to the market hall – and finally the funicular up the Schlossberg, where the lookout tower brings old town, Rhine plain and Black Forest together.

1. Old Synagogue Square – Between the theatre and the university lies a square that carries history: here stood the synagogue built in 1870 and burned down in the pogrom night of 9–10 November 1938. Since 2017 a shallow mirror of water has traced its outline – a place of remembrance amid everyday life, most striking in the evening when the city lights are reflected in it. The panel at the edge tells the story of Freiburg's Jewish community; take those two minutes before the bustle of the pedestrian zone takes over again.
2. Martinstor – In the middle of the pedestrian zone stands the older of the two surviving town gates: the Martinstor's beams have been dated to around 1202, and it appears in records in 1238. Its present height is younger, though – in 1901 the gate was substantially raised in the style of the day. The annexe next door has housed a McDonald's since 1977 – the city banned the red-and-yellow logo, leaving a sign that counts among the company's most discreet. Photograph the gate from the old-town side and modernity stays behind you.
3. Minster Square & Minster – The tower of Freiburg Minster was completed around 1330 – the only great Gothic church tower in Germany finished in the Middle Ages and still standing today. The art historian Jacob Burckhardt praised it in 1869 as the most beautiful tower on earth; that became the famous phrase about "the most beautiful tower in Christendom". In November 1944 an air raid reduced the surrounding houses to rubble; the minster survived with roof damage – its medieval stained glass had been moved to safety in time. Climb the 330-odd steps and you see as far as the Kaiserstuhl and the Vosges. Below, the market with its 130 or so stalls bustles on weekdays; the "Lange Rote", Freiburg's bratwurst, is compulsory.
4. Historical Merchants' Hall – Opposite the minster glows the deep-red merchants' hall with arcades and four corner turrets, begun in 1520 as the city's trading and customs house. Between the windows stand four rulers of the House of Habsburg – Maximilian I, Philip the Handsome, Charles V and Ferdinand I, carved around 1530 by Hans Sixt von Staufen. The bow had its reasons: Freiburg had belonged to the Habsburg lands since 1368, and good relations with the imperial house were the basis of business. Note the gilded canopies above the figures – in sunshine the facade fairly burns.
5. Augustinermuseum – In a converted monastery on Augustinerplatz hangs the art of the Upper Rhine from the Middle Ages to the 19th century – Cranach, Baldung Grien, Matthias Grünewald. The real coup, though, is the twelve-metre-high sculpture hall: original figures and gargoyles from the minster stand there at eye level, which outside on the tower you can only make out as silhouettes. The minster's genuine medieval stained-glass windows are installed here too – at the original you see how strong the colours really are. A compact museum, easily done in an hour. Outside, it's worth swinging into the lanes behind: in the Fischerau's mill canal, "Lulu" has lain since 2001, a granite crocodile by the sculptor Ole Meinecke – long one of the old town's favourite photo motifs.
6. Bächle & Market Hall – They are Freiburg's trademark: the Bächle, narrow watercourses in the pavement, on record since 1220 and probably as old as the city itself. The network measures almost 16 kilometres, a good third of it underground, fed by the Dreisam, once for livestock and fire protection, today for wet children's feet and little wooden boats on strings. Everyone here knows the legend: step in by accident and you will marry a Freiburger. Next door, the market hall on Grünwälderstraße is worth it – some twenty food stalls from Baden cooking to Asian, where a newspaper was still being printed until 1987.
7. Schlossberg – Freiburg's home mountain begins right behind the old town: from the Stadtgarten the funicular pulls you up the slope in a few minutes, where forest paths, fortress remains and the Kastaniengarten await – a beer garden with the city at its feet. The real highlight is the Schlossberg tower of 2002, built from long tree trunks around a steel staircase: 153 steps lead a good 30 metres up, and suddenly everything lies before you at once – minster tower, Rhine plain, on clear days the Vosges, and the Black Forest at your back. Downhill it is a quarter of an hour's walk to the Schwabentor, the second surviving town gate.