The tunnels themselves
Medieval cellars turned wartime vault — you walk inside the story, not past it.
Barnack — Public domain · Derzno — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Derzno — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Derzno — CC BY-SA 4.0
Deep in the castle hill's rock hides a great rescue story: medieval beer cellars converted in the Second World War into a secret climate-controlled vault, where Nuremberg deposited all its artistic treasures — and every one survived, while the city above became rubble in a single night. The guided tour takes you into those same tunnels: how the works were chosen and moved in secret — the Imperial crown, Dürer's works, church treasures — how humidity and temperature were managed with the era's technology, and the shocking photographs of the destroyed city above these surviving halls. A luminous story amid the city's darkest chapter, and the perfect complement to the castle, whose slope holds its entrance. It is permanently cold below — bring a layer even in summer.
Medieval cellars turned wartime vault — you walk inside the story, not past it.
How the empire's treasures moved in secret and all survived as the city burned.
Nuremberg in ruins above these surviving halls — a chilling contrast.
Obere Schmiedgasse 52, 90403 Nuremberg
Albrecht Dürer MonumentThe Albrecht Dürer Monument is a bronze statue of Germany's best-known artist, p1 minute walk4.4
Historic Rock-Cut CellarsUnder the castle hill runs a network of chambers cut straight into the coloured 1 minute walk4.9
PilatushausA late Gothic house of fourteen eighty-nine on the corner of the square below th1 minute walk4.9
TiergartnertorplatzTiergärtnertorplatz is among Nuremberg's finest and most visually complete squar1 minute walk4.6
Sinwell TowerThe Sinwell Tower is the great round tower of Nuremberg Castle, and the highest 1 minute walk4.9The most precious the city and empire owned: the Imperial regalia, Dürer works, church stained glass dismantled pane by pane, and thousands more. The list itself is part of the tour's thrill.
No — that one is medieval justice, this one war and rescue, and the mood is opposite: bleak there, epic here. Together they give both faces of underground Nuremberg.
The 'treasure rescue' story works from about eight, and the tunnels are relatively roomy — no crawling, no squeezing. It is a narrated tour, though — a child who won't follow the telling will drift.