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Capital of Thuringia, Germany
Photo: Harald Hoyer from Schwerin, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Erfurt is the capital and largest city of the German state of Thuringia (Thüringen), with a population of around 215,000 (2024). Located at a major geographic and transportation crossroads in central Germany, the city is characterized by its large, intact medieval old town. Key landmarks include the Krämerbrücke (Europe's longest inhabited bridge) and several UNESCO World Heritage medieval Jewish monuments.
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Cathedral
Church
One of the most important Gothic buildings in Germany.
The name could be translated as "merchants' bridge"
A bridge with houses built on either side, mostly used for shops. Once this style of bridge was rather common in medieval European cities. However, in many cities such bridges were abandoned due to fire safety concerns or fell victim to the demands of car culture. It is by far Erfurt's most iconic landmark.
with its Burgerhouses and town hall.
St. Augustine's Monastery
Monastery where Martin Luther lived. The main gate of the old university (third oldest German university, shut down in the 19th century and reopened in 1992)
Main square of the city. Full of stores with the old Post Office building.
Zitadelle Petersberg
A historical defence system and a great lookout over the city.
Art gallery exhibiting contemporary art.
The company Topf & Söhne built the cremation ovens for concentration camps during the Holocaust. The site of the factory is now a Holocaust memorial site and a museum.
Oldest surviving European synagogue, today a museum that has an impressive collection of 14th century Jewish jewelry. The synagogue was in use as such until the 1349 pogrom and was converted to a warehouse afterwards. This "forgetfulness" of its history proved a serendipitous blessing in disguise as the Nazis never knew or cared enough about this part of Jewish history to destroy it in the same way they destroyed Jewish lives and heritage elsewhere. It was only in the 1980s that people started to care about this building again and after reunification, the Erfurt city council bought up the building and restored it to its current state, turning it into a museum.
This synagogue sits on the site of the 1884 building plundered and burned down by the Nazis in 1938 and later razed. The Nazis had forced the congregation to sell the land on which the building sat afterwards, but astonishingly the city council gave the land back to the reestablished congregation in 1947. There was debate on the style of the synagogue to be built, with early suggestions rejected as "too ecclesiastical" by the anti-religious East German authorities so the resulting building is pretty modest and betrays its 1950s origins. It is kept under police surveillance due to fear of antisemitic attacks and you can see security cameras near the entrance.
ritual bath
A Mikveh is a ritual bath fed by "living" water (in this case a nearby river, which however had much more water in the Middle Ages than it does now). This Mikveh was in use during the same time as the Old Synagogue and is attested in tax records as early as the 13th century. Those same tax records also attest the surrounding area as densely populated by both Jews and Christians. The Mikveh was damaged during the 1349 pogrom but used again after 1354. Following the 1453 expulsion of the Jewish community the mikveh fell into disuse and was converted into a cellar which was subsequently forgotten about. Only in the 2000s were archeological excavations undertaken to unearth this part of Erfurt's Jewish history and it opened as a museum in 2011. Not all questions that science can answer have yet been answered about this site and research is ongoing. You can see down into the Mikveh through a glass window outside the guided tours.
A huge and beautiful botanical garden and accessible by the Straßenbahn. Garden lovers can find many things to do and see. Check out for any exhibitions or programmes.
Watch an opera or play.
Take a walk around the town park and see the green side of the city
Join a historical city tour organised by the Tourist Information to have better and entertaining insight into the long lasting history of the town.
Right at the Wenigemarkt or behind the Krämerbrücke beside the river you can have a beautiful look at the old houses standing on the 'bridge'.
Here you get the original grilled Thuringia sausage.
Old school German cuisine in medieval setting.
Supposedly an excellent ice cream shop.
Nice cafe and bar with the opportunity to sit outside and have a nice look at the Gera river. Every day they offer a different special.
Black, House and Rock music. Every Thursday: Ladies World with free entrance until midnight and all you can drink for €6. Every Friday: Night of the Stars with special drinks. Saturdays: varying themes.
E-Burg Studentenzentrum
Varying program and events, regular: Fightclub (different music styles). More alternative and rock music.
Cocktail lounges, salsa parties and 1970s, 1980s, and pop events on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
pop, electronic, house, black. Varying events on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Grand Hotel Erfurt
Modern architecture and good atmosphere.
This hotel was the site of an important event in West German—East German relations, when Willy Brandt stayed here during a 1970 visit. The visit was the first meeting of East and West German heads of government, but besides the political deliberations (which provided few concrete results) there was a memorable scene when Erfurters broke through police and Stasi barricades demanding to see Willy Brandt with the words "Willy Brandt ans Fenster" until he ultimately did show himself in the window. Brandt reminisced about this moment as one of the most emotional in his life in his memoirs two decades later. A sign on the roof of the hotel reads "Willy Brandt ans Fenster" in commemoration of the event.
Shopping mall directly in the city centre. Offers the opportunity to shop for apparel, electronics, groceries and more on four floors.
Shopping centre approx. 20 min outside the city centre. Shop for apparel, groceries, electronics and more. Post office, drug store and Sparkasse (a German bank) also inside. Special events happen around holidays or around special themes (e.g. fashion, sport etc.)
Shopping mall 10 minutes outside the city centre. Shop here for groceries or electronics. Only a few apparel shops are here. The several shops open at different times, have a look at the website for details!
By train
5 hr), Stuttgart (3:40 hr) and Hamburg (under 4 hr), once in two hours with Dresden (2 hr). Flixtrain serves the city.
By plane
5-3 hours.5 hr).5 hours from Erfurt by train.
By bus
The primary operator for long-distance buses is FlixBus, connecting Erfurt to numerous domestic and international destinations.
The city centre is quite compact, so walking is often the best way to explore the city.
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Erfurt · International · ERF
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