Old Town and City Walls
On Gingerguide's self-guided Nuremberg audio tour, Old Town and City Walls is a stop worth about ~45 min. Stand in front of it, press play for a short narrated story, and put any follow-up question to the built-in AI guide.
- Type historic
- Suggested visit ~45 min
- Nuremberg Nuremberg guide
About Old Town and City Walls
Nuremberg's old town sits inside a roughly five-kilometre ring of medieval wall, towers and dry moat, straddling the Pegnitz river and carefully rebuilt after wartime bombing.
Nuremberg's Altstadt is still largely enclosed by its medieval fortifications, the circuit divided by the Pegnitz into a northern Sebald side and a southern Lorenz side. Work on the fortifications began in the twelfth century and officially ended in the sixteenth; the present outer wall was finished around 1400 as an irregular, roughly five-kilometre ring. A dry moat, the Stadtgraben, was added between about 1430 and 1452. The four great gate towers took their present massive round form between 1556 and 1564.
The old town was very heavily damaged by Allied air raids in the Second World War, with a major raid on the night of 2 January 1945 destroying much of the historic centre. Estimates that around ninety percent of the old town was lost are widely repeated but vary between sources. Reconstruction, aided by detailed pre-war photographs, rebuilt the walls, towers and moat; of some 130 recorded towers, 71 survive.
Did you know? The Stadtgraben, the town's defensive moat, was dug from about 1430 and finished in 1452. Unlike many castle ditches it was always dry rather than water-filled, a deep ditch rather than a flooded channel.
How much time do you need at Old Town and City Walls?
Around ~45 min works well for Old Town and City Walls — time to look properly and listen to its story on the spot. Linger if you like; nothing on a self-guided walk is on a clock.
Should you stop at Old Town and City Walls?
Yes — Old Town and City Walls made the cut as one of 13 places the Gingerguide team researched and narrated across Nuremberg. The story tells you why it is worth the stop, and the AI guide fills in anything you still wonder.
Nearby stops in Nuremberg
Day 1 of the Nuremberg in 2 days itinerary →
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Hear the story of Old Town and City Walls
Preview the Nuremberg tour free in the Gingerguide app.