Burg and Altstadt (Old Town)

Medieval experience

There are more than a thousand monuments decorating the Old Town with its three City Halls, the oldest street with a complete timber-frame front together with magnificent patricians’ houses, and the Burg, or castle, lording over it all.

Esslingen’s Old Town is not just historical scenery. More than forty different city guides bring history to life for our visitors to experience and feel.

The massive building that was once the house of trade and excise, today’s Altes Rathaus, or Old City Hall, forms the centre of the Marktplatz, the market square. The front of the square was given a thorough facelift during the Renaissance. The pearl of the square is its astronomical clock; just under the glockenspiel that sounds several times a day, the wings of the imperial eagle beat the hour. The clock is unique – the original movement from 1591 turns the hands and the figures, and is one of Germany’s oldest clock movements. Stately homes of erstwhile patricians that earned their riches in trade and winegrowing can be seen in the neighbouring residential quarters, the Webergasse and Heugasse as well as the Hafenmarkt. Esslingen is a major stop on the German half-timbered road with the oldest continuous timber-frame front and a large number of other German half-timbered houses. One particularly fine example is the elaborately decorated gable of the Kielmeyer house, which is currently the city information centre, in the market square.

The Esslinger Burg or castle – once a part of the old city walls – has overseen the glory of the whole Old Town for almost seven centuries. Relics of the city wall in the Old Town include the Schelztorturm tower, Pliensauturm tower, and Wolfstor, or “Wolf’s Gate” (35). Visitors can walk onto the towers, battlements and casements. Even if you have to take more than three hundred steps to get up there, the phenomenal view over the city and valley is worth the effort.

• Esslingen Burg (Castle)
• Neckarhaldentor (Neckarhalde Gate Tower)
• Pliensauturm (Pliensau Gate Tower)
• Schelztorturm (Schelztor Gate Tower)
• Wolfstor / Obertor (Wolfstor/Obertor Gate Tower)