Quintessential Quedlinburg: A Tour around its UNESCO Timber-Framed Houses

Discover Quedlinburg, the small town in the Harz mountain region that has over 2,000 UNESCO-recognised timber-framed houses. On this walking tour through the Old Town, I‘ll show you some of the impressive houses, all ranging between 300 and 800 years old. You‘ll also see the remains of Quedlinburg Castle and Stiftskirche St Servatius Cathedral, founded by Henry I and his son Otto the Great in the 10th century.

This hour-long tour through Quedlinburg‘s Old Town starts in Marktplatz (the market square) in the shadows of the ivy-covered Quedlinburg Rathaus, one of the oldest town halls in Germany. From there, we‘ll walk through the most important streets of the Old City and into the New City, which was founded in 1200. You‘ll hear about some important people who were born here like Johann Christoph GutsMuth, the father of physical education, and visit their birthplaces including GutsMuths Haus. The tour ends on Castle Hill in Schlossgarten Quedlinburg, a beautiful garden with breathtaking town vistas.

Along the way, you‘ll have a chance to:

• Learn what makes the oldest timber-framed house in Quedlinburg so special
• Hear about Henry I, known as the bird catcher, who founded the city
• Discover the hidden medieval stone bridge underneath the modern Steinbrücke street
• Spot kanonenkugel Quedlinburg, a 15th-century cannonball stuck in the facade of a building
• Marvel at the quaint shoemaker court only reachable through a small alley that‘s easily overlooked
• Find the houses where the town piper, the bailiff and the midwife used to live
• Pass by St Nicholas Church, Marktkirche St Benedikti, and Kulturkirche St Blasii – the town‘s various churches all going back to the 13th century and earlier
• Sample German cheesecake
• Walk along the remains of the medieval wall and some of the remaining towers including Spiegelturm
• Explore one of the oldest timber-framed houses in the world, the Ständerbau
• Hear how a Texas soldier stole treasures from Domschatz and later returned them for a lot of money
• Listen to the story of how Henry I found out, right here in Finkenherd, that he'd be the new German King

So tie your hiking shoes and join me on a fascinating tour of one of Germany‘s prettiest, and historical, towns!