Rothenburg ob der Tauber still sits inside its medieval walls, and this guide links seven places that show how the town lived, prayed, defended itself and punished its criminals: the Town Hall, the Medieval Crime Museum, the Castle Garden, the Blade Gate (Klingentor), the fortified church of St. Wolfgang, the Gallows Gate (Galgentor) and the Gerlachschmiede. All lie within or right on the town walls, so you can see them in one walk.
Rothenburg Town Hall
The Town Hall on the market square is really two buildings. The Gothic part at the back dates from about 1250, while the Renaissance front facing the square was begun in 1572; the arcade along the ground floor was added in 1681. The Gothic tower, about 61 metres high, is one of the few towers in town you can climb, and its lookout gives the best view over the roofs and walls.
The Town Hall is tied to the town's best known story, the Meistertrunk. In October 1631, during the Thirty Years' War, the imperial general Tilly took the town; according to the legend he promised to spare it if someone could drain a huge tankard of wine in one go, and the mayor Georg Nusch did it. Historians treat the story as almost certainly invented: it first appears in a chronicle written more than a century later. The Town Hall is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The Historiengewölbe in the vaults, an exhibition on the Thirty Years' War, and the old dungeons below.
- The Meistertrunk clock on the market square, which recalls the legend.
Medieval Crime Museum
The Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum is a museum of legal history covering about a thousand years of European justice, with the Middle Ages at its centre. It has been at Burggasse 3 since 1977, in the former commandery of the Knights of St John, built between 1393 and 1410 and remodelled in baroque style in 1718. The collection began as a private one in the late 19th century, shown as the "Rothenburg torture chamber", and today counts more than 2,000 objects.
The four floors run in order: the vaults deal with trials, evidence and torture; the ground floor with corporal and capital punishment, executioners and witches; the upper floors with church law, marriage, police, school punishments and famous criminal cases. It is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt, and it is not for small children.
- The shame basket in the entrance area, and the iron maiden on the first floor.
- Shrew's fiddles and scold's bridles, the wooden and iron devices used to shame people in public.
Castle Garden (Burggarten)
At the western tip of the old town, on a spur above the Tauber valley, the Burggarten fills the site of the town's lost castle. King Conrad III built an imperial castle here in 1142; it was destroyed or badly damaged around 1356, possibly by an earthquake, though historians do not agree. Only one building survives: a former residential hall that was turned into the Chapel of St. Blaise around 1400 and today serves as a memorial to the dead of both world wars.
Today the site is a quiet park with views down to the river and back to the walls and towers. The garden is not on our scavenger hunt route, but it is only a short walk from the Crime Museum.
- The Staufer stele, put up in 2010 to recall the imperial castle.
Blade Gate (Klingentor)
The Klingentor guards the northern edge of the town, and in 1631 the fiercest fighting of the siege took place between this gate and the Galgentor. During the attack, gunpowder stored in the Klingentor bastion exploded, and the Swedish garrison defending the town gave up the fight. The gate and its bastion are among the stops on our scavenger hunt.
- The bastion in front of the gate, where the church of St. Wolfgang is built right into the defences.
St. Wolfgang
St. Wolfgang is a single-nave late Gothic church built in 1475-1493 over the casemates of the Klingentor bastion, so that it forms part of the town's defences. It was the church of the shepherds' brotherhood, which explains some of its saints. Today it is a Lutheran church and a listed monument, and it is the first stop of our scavenger hunt.
Its winged high altar dates from 1514 and shows St. Wolfgang as a bishop between the plague saints Sebastian and Roch, with painted wings by Wilhelm Ziegler. The pulpit and gallery are from the second half of the 17th century.
- The Wendelin altar, given by the shepherds' brotherhood in honour of the patron saint of shepherds.
Gallows Gate (Galgentor)
The Galgentor, also called the Würzburg Gate, stands on the north-eastern side of the old town, on the road towards Würzburg. A Würzburg Gate already existed after the town was enlarged around 1204. Its grim nickname means Gallows Gate. The gate is not on our scavenger hunt route, but you can start your walk here.
Gerlachschmiede
The Gerlachschmiede is a former smithy, a half-timbered house standing just outside the Röder Gate tower in the east of the town. The Second World War reached Rothenburg late: on 31 March 1945 an air raid killed 37 people, destroyed about 275 houses and damaged the eastern walls. The town escaped worse because the US Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy ordered that no artillery be used; the local commander surrendered, and US troops entered on 17 April. The Gerlachschmiede is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the Galgentor in the north-east, follow the streets inside the wall west to the Klingentor and St. Wolfgang, then walk south past St. James's Church to the market square and the Town Hall. Continue down Herrngasse to the Burggarten for the views, and on your way back stop at the Crime Museum in Burggasse. From there head to the Plönlein and finish at the Gerlachschmiede by the Röder Gate. Climb the Town Hall tower early or late in the day to avoid the crowds.
See Rothenburg with World City Trail
Our Rothenburg scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from St. Wolfgang to the Baumeisterhaus, and St. Wolfgang, the Klingentor, the Town Hall, the Medieval Crime Museum and the Gerlachschmiede are all stops, along with St. James's Church, its bronze statue of St. James, the St. George fountain and the Plönlein. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Rothenburg, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Rothenburg scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Rothenburg →
Play the outdoor escape game in Rothenburg →
Facts checked in October 2026.