Photograph: The Mehlsack tower and the Obertor, Ravensburg by Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ravensburg is a town in Upper Swabia, in the south of Baden-Württemberg, and the capital of the district that carries its name. It was first mentioned in 1088, became a Free Imperial City under a privilege of 1276, and grew rich on long-distance trade, and because almost nothing was built there for a long time afterwards, its old town still stands inside a ring of medieval towers and gates, a short train ride north of Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.
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The photograph above looks across the upper old town from the east. On the left, rising behind the trees, is the Mehlsack, the tall round white tower that is the town's landmark. In the centre is the Obertor, the gate at the south east corner of the old town, with its stepped gables, its clock and its painted coats of arms, and around both are red tiled roofs and the green hillside beyond.
What that one frame cannot show is most of the town. It does not show the Marienplatz, the long central square; the Blaserturm and the Waaghaus beside it; the Frauentor and the other gates; the Veitsburg, the castle hill above; or the Rutenfest, the summer festival. All are described below and none is pictured.
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A Town Kept by Its Own Decline
Ravensburg sits at a ford on the river Schussen, on the old trade route between the Danube and Lake Constance. Around 1380 merchant families from Ravensburg and Konstanz founded the Great Ravensburg Trading Society, which owned shops and trading houses across Europe and dealt in linen, fustian and, from 1402, paper, when one of the first paper mills north of the Alps opened here.
The society was wound up in 1530, and the town stagnated. The Thirty Years' War emptied it further, so for a long time very little was built, and English Wikipedia puts the result plainly: that stagnation preserved "a widely intact medieval city with nearly all towers and gates of the historic fortification". The centre was not damaged by air raids in the Second World War, and three city gates and more than ten towers of the medieval fortification survive.
Two darker chapters belong in any honest account. In 1430 a blood libel led to the burning of the town's Jewish community, and in 1484 the inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, known as Institoris, had two women burned here as witches, testimony he later used in the Malleus maleficarum. The Museum Humpis-Quartier, in a merchant family's house near the Obertor, is the place to start on the town's history.
After the Reformation the council was split between Catholics and Protestants, and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 named Ravensburg one of four parity cities, with Augsburg, Biberach and Dinkelsbühl.
The Towers and Gates
The Mehlsack is 51 metres high and was built around 1425. Its name means flour sack, and German Wikipedia explains it by the tower's white render and round shape, adding that the story of it being used to store flour probably belongs to legend. It is the only round tower in the fortification, and it stands at the highest point of the old town on purpose: from its platform the citizens could watch the castle grounds above, which until the seventeenth century were held by the imperial bailiffs, the political opponents of the free city.
The Blaserturm, also 51 metres, stands on the Marienplatz beside the Waaghaus, the old weighing house and market hall. It was the town's central watchtower, collapsed in a storm in 1552 and was rebuilt in an Italian Renaissance style between 1553 and 1556. A plaque on it remembers the Schwabenkinder, the children from poor farming families in Tyrol and Switzerland who were brought to a hiring market in Ravensburg from the early nineteenth century until about 1955.
The Blaserturm and the Mehlsack have both been open to climb for a small fee, up many steep stairs; check current opening with the tourist office.
The Marienplatz itself was a moat. When the lower town was brought inside the walls between 1330 and 1370, the old wall between the two halves came down and the square was laid out on the filled-in ditch, and it still runs long and narrow through the old town. From it the Marktstrasse climbs south east to the Obertor, and the Kirchstrasse runs north to the Frauentor. The Frauentor burned out completely on 14 March 1982, and three firefighters lost their lives in the fire. Further round the walls are the Green Tower, named for its green glazed roof tiles, and the Painted Tower at the north west corner, decorated with ornamental painting.
The Veitsburg
The castle that gave the town its name stood on the Veitsberg, at 525 metres, above the old town. The Welfs built it around 1050 as a new and larger seat, and in the Thirty Years' War Swedish troops destroyed it; the name Veitsburg comes from the chapel of St Vitus that stood in the castle grounds. Today a youth hostel stands up there, and the reason to go is the view over the roofs.
Plan for the climb. Wikivoyage counts about 300 steps from the upper Marktstrasse to the hostel at the top. The slope beside it, the Rauenegg, carries the town's vineyard again.
The Rutenfest
The Rutenfest is Ravensburg's own festival, held at the end of the school term, usually in July. The custom it grew from is first mentioned in a municipal law in 1645, and it is the high point of the town's year, when former pupils come home to meet family and old classmates.
It runs from the Friday over a long weekend to the Tuesday. On the Monday most shops and offices close, and the historical parade, roughly 6,000 participants and about three hours long, winds through the old town in costume before tens of thousands of spectators. Official events are announced with three cannon salutes from the Mehlsack, the town hangs out thousands of blue and white flags, and a funfair, beer gardens, beer tents and food stands fill the Kuppelnau, north of the old town.
What it means for a visitor is practical. Rooms fill early, the streets are full for days, and the drumming groups play from as early as 5am until 11pm, so if you are a light sleeper, pack earplugs and choose a room off the main squares. If you are not coming for the festival, check the dates first so you do not arrive on a closed Monday by accident.
Ravensburger: the Name on the Box
Many visitors know the name from jigsaw puzzles and board games. Ravensburger is the games and puzzle company founded in Ravensburg in 1883 by Otto Robert Maier, and its headquarters are still in the town. The Museum Ravensburger, on the Marktstrasse in the old town, covers the company's history and is an easy rainy hour; the Ravensburger Spieleland family amusement park is out at Meckenbeuren.
When to Go
Summer is the long season. The squares fill with outdoor tables on warm days, the towers are worth climbing for the view, and the Rutenfest falls in July. Book well ahead if your dates overlap it.
Winter is milder than the country around it, and foggier. German Wikipedia explains that Lake Constance acts as a seasonal store of warmth, so winter frosts here are noticeably weaker than in the surrounding country, and that the same effect brings frequent lake fog in the cold months, when the warmer, damper air off the water meets the colder air inland.
Ravensburg also gets the Foehn, the warm fall wind off the Alps, which German Wikipedia notes sometimes reaches hurricane-like speed: on a Foehn day the wind can matter on the Veitsburg or a tower platform.
Getting There
By train. The railway reached Ravensburg in 1847 on the line from Stuttgart to Friedrichshafen, and the station sits on the route between Ulm and Friedrichshafen. It is about a ten minute walk from the pedestrian streets, and Ulm, Konstanz and Bregenz are each less than an hour away by train or road.
By air. The regional airport is at Friedrichshafen, about 15 kilometres south. Munich, Stuttgart and Zurich are the larger airports, each roughly a two hour drive away.
The centre is mostly pedestrianised and compact, though some streets are steep. A short bus ride takes you to neighbouring Weingarten, whose basilica is one of the largest baroque churches in Germany.
Is Ravensburg Safe for Women?
Ravensburg is a small, prosperous town and an easy one to visit alone. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Germany, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany, with restaurants, MARKETS, shopping centres, places of worship, sporting events and crowded public spaces named as possible targets. That is worth knowing in a country where a Christmas market is often the reason for the trip, and the response is awareness rather than avoidance. On crime the FCDO puts German levels on a par with the UK and names theft and pickpocketing at airports, railway stations and in crowded places, with the specific advice not to leave bags unattended. It also gives one unusually concrete warning: exchange currency only at banks and legitimate bureaux, because counterfeit notes are passed to visitors at street kiosks.
The festival is the crowd. The FCDO's terrorism wording names markets and crowded public gatherings, and the Rutenfest is the largest crowd of the year here. Awareness rather than avoidance is the response: know where you are meeting people if you are separated, and keep your bag closed and in front of you in the parade crowds.
Carry your passport or a copy you can back up. The FCDO says it is not a legal requirement to carry ID in Germany, but if you cannot show it when asked, police can escort you to get your passport.
The ground and the steps are the likeliest problem. The old lanes climb, the stair up to the Veitsburg is long, and tower stairs are steep and narrow. Wet stone, a dark winter afternoon and the lake fog make all of them slower.
The Ravensburg Packing List
Steep lanes, cold tower stairs, lake fog in winter and long outdoor evenings in summer.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women suits a town where you climb 300 steps to a castle hill, stand still in a cool stone church and then sit out on the Marienplatz as the evening cools. Wool handles all three without a change. From November to March, when the lake fog settles in, add a heavyweight merino base layer and a merino beanie.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece is the mid layer for a damp grey day, and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket covers the rain and doubles as a windbreaker on a Foehn day or a tower platform.
Walking shoes with grip and Darn Tough merino socks are the items that matter most here, because the climb to the Veitsburg and the tower stairs are where a day goes wrong in the wrong shoes.
Not linked, and why. Earplugs for the Rutenfest drumming and a refillable water bottle are both worth packing; the bottle is unlinked only because this list has reached its limit of six product links, and the shoes matter more. Sunscreen and sunglasses for a clear Foehn day are unlinked because our affiliate register carries no sunscreen and no eyewear at all. And leave the heels at home: on these slopes that is a safety point rather than a style one.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Ravensburg
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.
Hospital: none of the sources read for this page names the town's hospital, so this post does not either. Dial 112 and the ambulance service takes you to the right emergency department; for something that is not an emergency, 116117 reaches the medical on-call service, and any Apotheke posts the out-of-hours pharmacy rota in its window.
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, covers national public health guidance, which is the right level for a visitor.
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Berlin.
Official tourism authority: the German National Tourist Board, covers the national picture; for tower opening times and the Rutenfest dates, the town's own tourist office is the current source.
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.
Solo women safety assessment: Ravensburg is one of the easier places in Germany to arrive alone. It is small, prosperous and compact, the Marienplatz is busy with people sitting out into the evening, and the FCDO publishes no advised-against area anywhere in Germany and puts crime at levels similar to the UK. Ordinary care with bags at the station and in crowds covers it. The one time of year the town changes character is the Rutenfest, when the old town is packed for days, the parade crowd runs to tens of thousands and the beer tents are full; it is a family festival rooted in the schools, but a crowd is a crowd, so agree meeting points and keep valuables close. The physical risks are the ordinary ones of an old hill town: steep lanes, a long stair to the Veitsburg, narrow tower steps, and fog or wet stone in winter. If you walk out into the hills alone, leave your route with someone, as the FCDO advises. 112 reaches police, ambulance and fire free from any phone.
Reading On
Ravensburg sits between the Danube and Lake Constance, and the lake is the obvious next stop. The Konstanz packing list covers the city where the Great Ravensburg Trading Society had its other founding families, and the Lindau packing list and the Bregenz packing list cover two more towns on the same lake, the second of them in Austria. North on the same railway, the Ulm packing list covers the Danube city at the other end of the line. For the other parity cities of 1648, the Augsburg packing list and the Dinkelsbühl packing list are the pair to read. Across the border, the St Gallen packing list and the Zurich packing list cover eastern Switzerland, and for the larger cities the Munich packing list and the Stuttgart packing list are each a couple of hours away. For the country, the Germany travel guide for women and the Germany packing list carry the rail network and the regions. For why wool handles a steep climb, a cold tower and a warm evening in one shirt, 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.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
