Photograph: Martin-Luther-Platz, Ansbach by Alexander Rahm, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ansbach is a small baroque city in Bavaria, about 40 kilometres south west of Nuremberg, and the capital of the region of Middle Franconia, a role it owes to centuries as the seat of the margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Around 42,000 people live here, and the town centre is compact and walkable, with a large palace, a formal court garden with an orangery, two medieval churches and the strange story of Kaspar Hauser. Packing for Ansbach means packing for cobbled streets, for cold winters and mild, showery summers, and for a quiet town that rewards a slow day or two on the way between Nuremberg and the walled towns to the west.
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The photograph above shows Martin-Luther-Platz on an overcast day: a wide cobbled square lined with tall pastel town houses, a large building with a steep orange roof and rows of dormers at the far end, and behind it the tall stone tower of St Gumbertus with its clock and spire between two smaller pointed towers. A modern stone sculpture on a slender column stands in the foreground, with cafe tables, a bench and a few people crossing the square. What the frame cannot show is the palace quarter that defines the town. The Residenz is not in it, nor the court garden and its orangery, nor the pillar and monument to Kaspar Hauser, nor the interiors of the churches, nor the river. It is a fair picture of the old town's character on a grey day, but the town's grandest buildings are a short walk out of shot.
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What Is Here
Ansbach grew from a monastery into a princely capital. The encyclopaedia records that a Benedictine monastery was founded here around 748 by St Gumbertus, that the Hohenzollern burgraves of Nuremberg took over in 1331, and that a branch of the family ruled from here as the margraves of Ansbach. George the Pious brought the Protestant Reformation to the town in 1528. The last margrave sold his realm to Prussia in 1791, and Ansbach passed to Bavaria in the Napoleonic era, which is why a town of this size still hosts the regional government.
The two great churches are close to the square in our photograph. St Gumbertus, whose towers rise behind it, holds the burial place of the margraves, and St Johannis is the town's other major medieval church, Gothic outside and baroque inside. The baroque synagogue was not burnt down in 1938 and today can be visited on a guided tour. The town also remembers Robert Limpert, a 19-year-old student who tried to persuade Ansbach to surrender to the American forces without a fight at the end of the Second World War and was hanged for it; several memorials to him stand in the town.
The Residenz and the Court Garden
The Residenz is the reason the town looks as it does. The margraves' palace reached its present form in the early eighteenth century and was completed in 1738, and the encyclopaedia notes that the town was not badly damaged in the world wars, so its baroque character survives. The palace is now the seat of the government of Middle Franconia, and its state rooms include a festive hall with a ceiling fresco by Carlo Carlone, a hall of mirrors in the French rococo style and a large collection of faience and porcelain. The travel guide calls it a large palace almost out of proportion to the size of the town, which is exactly the impression it gives.
Behind it lies the Hofgarten, the court garden, laid out as a baroque garden between 1723 and 1750, badly damaged in the Second World War and reconstructed afterwards. It has lime tree avenues, lawns and flower beds, and a herb garden of medicinal plants based on the work of the sixteenth century physician Leonhart Fuchs, after whom the fuchsia is named. The Orangery, begun in 1726, closes the garden's main axis, and it and the palace's Great Hall are venues for the Bachwoche Ansbach, the Bach festival held in the town since 1947.
Kaspar Hauser
Ansbach is where the mystery of Kaspar Hauser ended. On 26 May 1828 a teenage boy was found wandering the streets of Nuremberg carrying two letters; he later claimed to have grown up in total isolation in a darkened cell. Rumours spread that he was a prince of the House of Baden hidden away by dynastic intrigue, while others called him an impostor. In December 1831 he was sent to live with a schoolmaster in Ansbach. On 14 December 1833 he came home with a deep chest wound, saying a stranger had lured him to the court garden and stabbed him; he died three days later. The court of enquiry suspected he had stabbed himself. His headstone in the city cemetery calls him, in Latin, the riddle of his time, and a small pillar in the court garden marks the spot. In 2024, the encyclopaedia records, a DNA study ruled out princely descent.
You can follow the story through the town: the pillar in the Hofgarten, the Kaspar Hauser monument, and the grave in the cemetery. It is a strange, sad tale, and still argued over.
When to Go
Ansbach has a temperate climate with cold winters and mild summers. The long term averages give a mean of about 0C in January and about 18C in July. Spring to early autumn is the best time for the court garden and for cycling out into the surrounding countryside, which the travel guide warns is quite hilly. Winter is quiet and cold, and the town makes a calm base for December trips to the Christmas markets of the region. Check the Bachwoche dates if you would like to hear music in the palace or the Orangery.
Getting There
Ansbach is easy to reach by train. It is on the S4 line of the Nuremberg S-Bahn, and the travel guide says that from Nuremberg airport the underground to the main station and then the S4 or a regional train takes about an hour altogether. By road it sits on the A6 motorway. The travel guide advises parking outside the old town, which has narrow lanes, one-way streets and pedestrian zones, and is less than a kilometre across, so everything inside it is easy on foot.
Day trips from Ansbach include Lichtenau Fortress, a Renaissance stronghold of the Nuremberg burgraves, Colmberg Castle, the walled town of Wolframs-Eschenbach, home of the medieval poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, and the former Cistercian abbey at Heilsbronn. The walled towns of Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl, both covered in Reading On below, are also within reach.
Is Ansbach Safe for Women Travelers
The FCDO names no area of Germany that it advises against, and Ansbach is a quiet, orderly town. The FCDO's terrorism wording for Germany is its strongest: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany, and attacks could be indiscriminate, including at restaurants, markets, places of worship and cultural events. Ansbach has had one such incident: in July 2016 a bomb was detonated outside a wine bar near a music festival, killing only the bomber. The FCDO adds that German authorities regularly report disrupting planned attacks. Stay aware in crowds, especially at Christmas markets and festivals, without letting it keep you at home.
On crime, the FCDO says levels are similar to the UK, and advises sensible precautions against mugging, bag-snatching and pickpocketing, particularly at airports, railway stations and crowded places, and not leaving bags unattended. Change money only at banks, cash machines or official exchanges and check your change, because it notes British nationals have been arrested for paying with counterfeit currency. You are not legally required to carry ID, but if you cannot show it when asked, police can escort you to fetch your passport, so carrying it is simpler.
Ansbach is also home to a US Army garrison, which the travel guide notes has been downsized, so you may hear American English in town. For a woman travelling alone, Ansbach is a comfortable place: a small, walkable town where the ordinary city precautions after dark are enough.
The Ansbach Packing List
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the most useful single item for a Franconian town: warm under a coat on a winter market evening, comfortable on its own on a mild summer day in the court garden, and fresh enough to wear again after a day of walking and palace rooms.
For Cobbles and Gardens
Ansbach's old town is paved with cobbles, and you will walk a lot. Salomon hiking shoes are comfortable all day on uneven stone and grip on wet days, and they also suit a hilly cycle ride or a walk out to a castle. A packable rain jacket earns its place in any season, because the long term averages make July wetter than January here.
For Cold Months
From late autumn to early spring, add a warm mid layer such as the Columbia Fast Trek fleece jacket under a coat, a merino beanie and thin merino wool glove liners for long evenings at a Christmas market. A set of Eagle Creek packing cubes keeps a small bag tidy if you are moving between Ansbach, Nuremberg and the walled towns by train. That is our sixth affiliate link, which is our limit per post. Our affiliate register carries no sunscreen and no eyewear, so bring your own for summer.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Ansbach
Emergency numbers: ambulance 112, fire 112, police 110, according to the FCDO's getting help page. Its health page says to dial 112 and ask for an ambulance.
Main hospital: Klinikum Ansbach, run by ANregiomed, the regional hospital group, has a central emergency department. The FCDO keeps a list of medical providers in Germany, where some staff speak English. Carry insurance that covers treatment and repatriation alongside a Global Health Insurance Card or European Health Insurance Card.
US State Department travel advisory: the Germany advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/germany, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Official health authority: the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health body.
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Berlin, is in Berlin; for help in Bavaria start with the embassy's website.
Official tourism authority: the German National Tourist Board, covers the whole country, including Franconia.
Solo women safety assessment: Ansbach is a small, calm and walkable town and an easy place to travel alone, and no part of Germany is on the FCDO's advise-against list. The realistic risks are the national ones: pickpocketing at stations and in crowds, the FCDO's high national terrorism threat around markets and events, and slippery cobbles in wet or icy weather. Keep bags closed and close, stay aware in crowds, walk in good shoes, and remember that 110 is the police and 112 the ambulance.
Takeaways
Give Ansbach a day or two between Nuremberg and the walled towns. Walk the palace rooms and the court garden, follow the Kaspar Hauser story, and listen to music in the Orangery if the Bach festival is on. Pack for cobbles and showers in summer and for real cold in winter, with merino next to the skin.
Reading On
Ansbach sits between the city and the walled towns. To the north east is the city where Kaspar Hauser was found, covered by the Nuremberg packing list, and to the west and south are the Rothenburg ob der Tauber packing list and the Dinkelsbuhl packing list. Further north in Franconia are the Wurzburg packing list and the Bamberg packing list, and for other Bavarian cities read the Regensburg packing list and the Munich packing list. The Germany packing list and the Germany travel guide for women cover the whole country. For why one wool layer works from a winter market to a summer garden, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women, and every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women. The base layers themselves are in the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
