Altstadt, Nürnberg

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I was lucky to visit Nurnberg Altstadt once again in 2011. I didn’t see something extraordinary new for me but enjoyed the main sightseeing and refreshed my sweet memory about my previous visits…
You can watch my 3 min 25 sec Video Nurnberg Altstadt HD out of my Youtube channel.

It's very easy to find Nürnberg's old town, or Altstadt in German, since it's all rounded by the old stone city walls. There are 4 main gate towers (Tor) approximately at the four corners of the old town, from which you can enter the city, also by car.

In the middle of the Old Town, flowing east to west, is the river Pegnitz, which divides the old town in 2 equal halves. There are many bridges over it and also 2 small islands

The original city walls were guarded by 46 fortified towers, and were 5 km long. The gates were 5. It took more than 50 years to restore and partially rebuild all the stadtmauer, including 4 of the 5 gates, of which the Königstor (Kings's Gate) is probably the fist one everyone sees, just going out of the Hauptbahnhof.

Most of Nuremberg's attractions are conveniently enclosed in the compact Altstadt, inside the medieval walls, with its 80 towers and 4 gates. The town center is split in two by the marvelous river Pegnitz, and has the main train station in the south east, and the Kaiserburg sitting on top of the hill to the north west. With such a small area, and some very obvious landmarks, like the twin spires of St Sebulus and St Lorenz on either side of the river, it is very difficult to get lost, but you probably won't mind if you do. It is a beautiful "old" city center, almost completely rebuilt after allied bombs destroyed it in the Second World War.