Erfurt is the capital of Thuringia and one of the few large German cities whose medieval centre came through the twentieth century substantially intact. It has a bridge with houses built along both sides that people still live in, the oldest synagogue in Europe standing to its original walls, and a cathedral that rises off a square at the top of a wide flight of steps. For a city of about 215,000 people it is remarkably dense in things worth walking to, and walking is how you will see all of it.
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What Is Here
THE KRAMERBRUCKE IS THE REASON MOST PEOPLE COME AND IT IS IN NONE OF OUR PHOTOGRAPHS. It is a medieval bridge over the Gera with half-timbered houses along its full length, shops at street level and people living above them, and crossing it you would not know you were on a bridge until you reached the far end. It is the longest inhabited bridge of its kind in Europe. Our image set does not contain it, which is worth saying plainly rather than leaving you to notice: what we hold is the cathedral, the cobbled lanes and the painted facades, and the bridge is simply absent from what was available.
THE CATHEDRAL AND ST SEVERUS STAND SIDE BY SIDE ABOVE A FLIGHT OF STEPS, which is the first image and an unusual arrangement: two large Gothic churches together on a mound, reached by the Domstufen, with the open Domplatz below. The steps are a performance venue in summer and the heart of the market in December, and the view back down across the square is the standard Erfurt photograph.
THE OLD SYNAGOGUE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BUILDING HERE AND THE QUIETEST. Its walls are medieval, making it the oldest synagogue in Europe surviving to that extent, and it exists because after the Jewish community was destroyed in the fourteenth century the building was converted to a storehouse and forgotten, which preserved it. The medieval treasure buried during that pogrom and rediscovered in the twentieth century is displayed in the cellar. It is a small museum and it asks something of a visitor, and it is the thing most worth your hour.
LUTHER WAS A MONK HERE BEFORE HE WAS ANYTHING ELSE. The Augustinian monastery where he took orders and lived for several years is intact, visitable and still a working religious house, and it is the place to understand him as a young man rather than as a historical turning point.
THE OLD TOWN IS THE ACTIVITY RATHER THAN A ROUTE BETWEEN SIGHTS. The second and third images are the point: cobbled lanes and painted merchant houses, the Fischmarkt with the town hall, the Anger running through the middle. It is compact, flat and almost entirely walkable, and the pleasure is wandering rather than ticking off.
THE CHRISTMAS MARKET IS ONE OF GERMANY'S BEST AND IT IS ON THE DOMPLATZ. The setting does the work: a large market under two Gothic churches on a floodlit mound. It runs through Advent, it is busy, and it is the reason December accommodation books out early.
When to Go
May to September gives you warm days, long evenings and the old town at its best. Thuringia is called the green heart of Germany and the countryside around the city earns the phrase in summer.
December is the other season, for the market. It is cold, often below freezing, the Domplatz is spectacular at night, and the city is fuller than at any other time.
Winter outside Advent is cold, grey and quiet, which is a fair description of inland eastern Germany in January. The museums, the synagogue and the monastery are all indoor, so the city holds up better than the weather suggests.
April and October are the value months, with lower prices and a city going about its business.
Getting There
By train, which is genuinely easy. Erfurt sits on the high-speed line between Frankfurt and Berlin and is a major junction, so it is roughly two hours from Berlin, two from Frankfurt and under two from Leipzig and Dresden. The station is a ten-minute walk from the old town.
By air, there is a small airport, but in practice people arrive through Frankfurt, Berlin or Leipzig and take the train.
By car, the A4 and A71 meet here. The old town is largely pedestrianised, so park on the edge.
You do not need a car and in the centre you cannot use one. This is a train-and-walk city, which is one of the reasons it is such an easy place to visit alone.
The Erfurt Packing List
Continental cold in winter, warm summers, cobbles everywhere and a long outdoor evening if you come for the market.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women does the specific job a German winter city demands: you move between a heated tram, a cold square, a warm museum and an outdoor market stall for hours, and wool holds temperature across that cycle without the sweat-then-chill that synthetics give. From November to March add a heavyweight merino base layer.
A Columbia Powder Lite insulated jacket for the Advent market, where you are standing still outside holding something hot for a long time, and a Columbia Fast Trek II fleece for the shoulder months.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, since continental summer here breaks into thunderstorms rather than drizzle.
Walking shoes with grip are the single most useful item: this city is cobbled nearly everywhere and the Domstufen are worn stone that is slippery wet. Add merino glove liners for a December visit, which are enough alone in October and go under a bigger glove in January.
Not linked and worth packing: A HAT AND A SCARF for the market, because standing outside in the cold is the activity rather than an interruption to it; A WATER BOTTLE; SOMETHING TO COVER YOUR SHOULDERS for the cathedral and the monastery; CASH IN EUROS, since market stalls are overwhelmingly cash and much of Germany still is; AND A FOLDING UMBRELLA.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Erfurt
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
GERMANY'S TERRORISM WORDING IS STRONG AND IT NAMES MARKETS, which matters in a city whose main winter attraction is a market. The FCDO states that terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany and lists markets, places of worship, shopping centres, crowded public spaces and sporting and cultural events among potential targets. That is a national assessment rather than anything about Erfurt, and the practical response at a packed Advent market is the ordinary one: know where the exits and the open streets are, and do not stand in the single densest part of a crowd if you have a choice. THE COBBLES AND THE CATHEDRAL STEPS ARE THE REAL EVERYDAY HAZARD. The Domstufen are worn stone, steep and wet for much of the year, and the old town is cobbled rather than paved, which is harder on ankles and footwear than visitors expect and genuinely difficult in the ice. WINTER IS CONTINENTAL AND INLAND, regularly below freezing, with ice on cobbles that is not always cleared early in the morning. CRIME IS AT UK LEVELS, with the FCDO naming mugging, bag-snatching and pickpocketing, which is ordinary urban care; it also warns about counterfeit currency and advises changing money at banks, ATMs or official exchanges and checking your change when paying cash.
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.
Main hospital: Erfurt has a large hospital with a full emergency department, the Helios Klinikum Erfurt, which serves the city and the surrounding region, so nothing here requires a transfer to another city. Dial 112 for ambulance and fire and 110 for police, both free from any phone, and 112 works from a mobile without a SIM. Pharmacies, Apotheken, post the night and Sunday duty rota on the door under the heading Notdienst. Germany is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident. That is not the same as free: German healthcare involves patient contributions and the card does not cover repatriation or private treatment, so travel insurance sits on top of it. German hospitals are excellent and English is widely spoken in them, particularly in university cities. An Apotheke, marked with a red A, handles minor problems without an appointment and the duty rota for out-of-hours is posted in the window. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 112 for an ambulance and 116117 for the non-emergency medical service.
Official health authority: the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health body, covers the national health service information and the pharmacy duty rotas
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Berlin.
Official tourism authority: the German National Tourist Board, covers the Christmas market dates, the cathedral and synagogue opening hours and the Thuringian regional transport
Takeaways
The Kramerbrucke is the thing to see. It is not in our photographs.
The Old Synagogue is the most important building and the quietest.
It is cobbled nearly everywhere. Footwear is the main decision.
December is the market and the city books out for it.
Solo women safety assessment: Erfurt is one of the easier German cities to travel alone in, and the reasons are structural rather than impressionistic. It is compact and flat, the old town is pedestrianised so you walk rather than navigate traffic, the main station is ten minutes from the centre on foot, and the city sits on a high-speed line that makes arriving and leaving simple at most hours. The centre is busy and well lit into the evening, eating alone is entirely normal, and there is no district a visitor needs to avoid. The area immediately around the station is the usual mix of late-night fast food and people waiting for trains, which is ordinary rather than threatening but is the one part of town worth walking through rather than lingering in after dark. Germany's crime levels are comparable to the UK's and the FCDO names mugging, bag-snatching and pickpocketing, with a specific warning about counterfeit currency that argues for banks and ATMs over private exchange offices. THE NATIONAL TERRORISM ASSESSMENT IS STRONG AND NAMES MARKETS EXPLICITLY, which is worth holding in mind at a dense Advent market without letting it decide whether you go: the useful response is awareness of exits rather than avoidance. 112 REACHES AMBULANCE AND FIRE AND 110 REACHES POLICE, free from any phone and from a mobile without a SIM. THE CITY HAS A LARGE HOSPITAL with a full emergency department, so serious care is handled here. The practical risk most visitors actually meet is the ground: cobbles across the whole centre and the worn stone of the cathedral steps, slippery when wet and genuinely treacherous in winter ice.
Reading On
Erfurt is a junction as well as a destination, and the cities on either side of it are easy days out: the Leipzig packing list covers the Saxon music city under two hours east and the Dresden packing list the rebuilt baroque capital beyond it. West on the same line, the Frankfurt am Main packing list covers the financial city and the airport most visitors arrive through. North, the Berlin packing list and the Potsdam packing list cover the capital and its palace town. South into Franconia, the Bamberg packing list and the Nuremberg packing list cover the other great intact old towns, with the Wurzburg packing list and the Rothenburg ob der Tauber packing list on the Romantic Road. For the country, the Germany travel guide for women carries the transport, the regions and the seasons in full. For why wool suits a day that moves between a heated tram and a freezing square, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. South into Franconia, the Bayreuth packing list covers Wagner's purpose-built opera house and the rococo theatre that came before it. West across the Hessian border, the Kassel packing list covers the UNESCO hillside park whose cascades run on gravity alone. And in the south west, the Esslingen packing list covers the other old town in this group that came through the war intact, with vineyards climbing into it. Fifteen minutes east by train, the Weimar packing list covers the town that carried German classicism and sits six kilometres from Buchenwald.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
