DINKELSBÜHL
WALLED CITY
Heart of the Romantic Road
It
lies on the gentle rolling plain in the northern Bavarian district of
Ansbach, just
north of where boundary of the ancient Roman Empire
cut through Germany at Aalen (see Roman
Limes Museums). Rothenburg
on the Tauber is probably better known, a just a bit more dramatic
as a medieval walled-city along the Romantic Road, but Dinkelsbühl,
not only has the more colorful name, but is the actual heart of the
tourist route of quaint old towns that make up the trail. Dinkelsbühl
(Dinkelsbuehl) is where the headquarters of the Romantic Road Association
is located, an idea begun in the shadow of war. But how does a German
medieval town survive several centuries of wars and progress?
Dinkelsbuhl
was first established as a town in the 10th Century as an outpost
to
guard the trade route from the Alps in the south to the
medieval capitals of the north where it crossed the River to Wörnitz,
but came into its own as a center of wealth from the wool trade, when
granted a warrant for under the Holy Roman German King Ludwig VI in
1323. St. George’s Minster, one of the most elegant hall churches
in Germany, was built at the intersection of the trade routes through
the Wörnitz Valley and town of beautiful half-timber buildings,
patrician houses, town squares encircled by stone city walls with 16
towers and 4 distinctive gates grew around it, a result of the growth
and trade wealth. As later forms of cloth, linens and silks became
popular and the industrial age came to towns closer to coal deposits
and navigable rivers, Dinkelsbuhl became 
rather frozen in time, surviving
intact through a series of fortunate misfortunes. The
historic performance festival play “Die Kinderzeche” held
every summer, with local residents garbed as Swedish Troops attacking
the city gate greeted
by the town’s children, re-enact the surrender of the city to
the Swedes in the Thirty Years War. A surrender which saved the town,
unlike the fate of Heidelberg’s famed castle (see Castle
Heidelberg on the Neckar). In 1826 Bavaria’s King Ludwig I issued a decree
preserving the town’s walls and towers. During both World War
I and II, Dinkelsbuhl was spared from damage because its importance
had faded before the industrial age and was fortunately far from major
transportation routes.
A
start of a visit to Dinkelsbuhl might begin at the city museum, located
in the 14th
Century Steinerne Haus just inside the Rothenburg gate,
where twin mechanical entry yeoman guards admit entry through withdrawn
halberds and the history the town’s ancient houses and discoveries
are displayed along with a swords and arms collection and paintings
of local historic dignitaries. In front of the Gothic Minster is a
monument to Christoph von Schmid a
popular
writer
of stories
for
young
people
from
the 19th
Century, Germany’s answer to Hans Christian Anderson and the
heritage of the Grimm Brothers, whose own tourist trail begins farther
north (see Fairytale
Trail of the Brothers Grimm). Other important
sights are the Wine Market square (Weinmarkt), the trade wealth Renaissance
great houses of the “Deutches Haus” and “Hezelhof”,
the Castle of the Teutonic Order with its Rococo chapel, the Old Hospital,
the Town Mill at the Nördlingen Gate, the Corn Storehouse the
Debtor’s Prison. The medieval Corn Storehouse has been town into
a Youth Hostel, of Germany’s oldest. Stop for some local Holzofen
Brot or take a Bicycle Tour of of the Roman Limes.
Dinkelsbuhl
is a living city, far from an old museum piece, with streets alive with
music from street bands and sidewalk café bars and
sweet shops. Cars are allowed into the old city, through the narrow
stone gates, but hours are limited, and on weekends and tourist high
season, parking is at a premium, with lots outside the walls. Dinkelsbuhl
is about a mile from the A7 Autobahn where it intersects the A6,
about an hour from Stuttgart and Augsburg and 20 minutes from Rothenburg
ob der Tauber (see Rothenburg
Markusturm). There is no direct rail station in Dinkelsbuehl,
the nearest train stops are Ansbach and Crailsheim. There is regular
bus service from Nuremburg and along the Romantic Road. There are
several quaint hotels in town, or if you have some time (a few
days)
stay
in a real
medieval moated castle about 20 minutes (see Schloss
Sommersdorf and the Family Mummies). © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Dinkelsbuhl Tourism
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See Also:
LANDSBERG
AM LECH ON THE ROMANTIC ROAD
BAD WIMPFEN MEDIEVAL CITY ON THE NECKAR
OBERAMMERGAU
PASSION PLAY
SCHLOSS EGGERSBERG CASTLE HOTEL ALTMUHLTAL
NEUSCHWANSTEIN
- MAD LUDWIG'S FANTASY CASTLE
