Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the town that time forgot. From medieval prosperity to provincial backwater due to shifting trade routes, Rothenburg sat dormant for many decades until rediscovered and preserved in the early 19th century.
For visitors, it’s the most favoured medieval town in Germany, the only one that’s completely walled without a modern building (not counting renovations and repairs). Crowds of shoppers and sightseers are testimony to its global popularity.
The name translates as Red Fortress above the Tauber River, nestled at a forested bend overlooking the river valley. To preserve it, vehicular traffic within the town is restricted. Parking lots immediately outside the ramparts mercifully absorb a continuous stream of cars and buses.
However, guests staying inside the town are permitted to drive through the narrow entrance gates to their accommodations and park there in special lots. Our destination is the Romantik Hotel Markusturm at Rödergasse 1.
Innkeepers Lilo and Stephan Berger run the hotel as though it’s a large friendly home, with guests constantly arriving and departing like family on holiday at a venerable cottage.
The building dates from 1264 as a customs house. The location, including the hotel with its yellow fronting, is one of the town’s most photographed spots (see the cover photo). Guest rooms are individually and lovingly furnished in modern or antique style.
We chose a modern room with a street view, beneath the Markusturm (Markus Tower), one of the earliest fortifications. The clock hands were almost close enough to let me turn the burg back in time again.
Like kids in a candy shop we didn’t know what to see first: the narrow cobblestoned streets lined with shops or the town walls. First, ‘To the ramparts!” and then “Into the town!”.
It takes 30 minutes to circle the town from a walkway inside the stone walls, giving a delightful bird’s eye view of a world from the past. The surrounding countryside adds to the time warp, with fields tilled as they have been for centuries (but now with mechanized equipment).
The ramparts are always open and best traversed in early morning and evening when crowds are absent and an old world atmosphere is all enveloping.
Lilo and Stephan strive to give hotel guests a genuine Franconian experience. Cuisine is traditional regional specialties. Our evening meal began with a glass of sekt, a German dry sparkling wine similar to champagne.
Franconian wine soup was followed by (Lis’ choice) perch and pike in a Riesling herb sauce, while I ordered pork loin accompanied by potato pancakes. Rothenburg wines, both red and white, were a natural pairing.
In a strange way, it was wine that saved the community from certain destruction during the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648). This was a miserable conflict that began over religion, then became a general brawl over power in central Europe.
General Tilly of the Imperial Army subdued Rothenburg, but being impressed with a cup of the local wine, charitably offered to not raze the town if a prominent resident could down a 6-pint tankard of the drink. A former Burgomeister did so and the rest is modern history, with the Meistertrunk (Master Draught) celebrated annually.
As we are preparing to leave, Lilo enquires “Is this your second marriage?’ Curious, we ask why. “Because you are good to each other”. Must have been the wine.
PHOTOS
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Story and photos copyright © Gary Crallé 2012. No commercial reproduction without written consent.
Romantik Hotel Markusturm www.romantikhotels.com/rothenburg
Rothenburg ob der Tauber http://bit.ly/RejXBF
German Tourist office www.germany.travel