Rothenburg Old Town

About this place

**The most complete walled medieval town in Germany**, and its wall can be walked in a **full circuit** — about 2.5 km of covered walkway at roof height, free and at any hour. The reason for that completeness is **bankruptcy**. In the sixteenth century Rothenburg was a free imperial city of six thousand; then the **Thirty Years'' War** and plague left it poor and half empty. There was no money left to demolish or expand, so it stood still for three centuries while the rest of Germany grew and pulled its walls down. Then in the nineteenth century **the Romantic painters found it**, and it became the image of «old Germany» in the international imagination — and later a much-used film location. Note: on **31 March 1945** about **40%** of the town was destroyed in an air raid. The ruined part was rebuilt exactly over decades from donations, **many of them American** — and small plaques along the wall name the donors whose money paid for each section. Note: it is **extremely crowded by day** with coach visitors; after six in the evening it empties completely and becomes a different town. Staying the night changes the visit entirely.