Krämerbrücke
Interesting facts
- Its two rows of half-timbered houses are the longest continuous rows of inhabited buildings on any bridge in Europe.
- The wooden bridge that preceded it burned again and again, with fires recorded in 1175, 1178, 1213, 1222, 1245, 1265 and 1293.
- Among the monasteries that kept stalls on the bridge was the Augustinian house where Martin Luther later lived as a monk.
- Medieval merchants here sold frankincense and other oriental perfumes brought from as far as about 7,000 kilometres away.
- In 1624 the city council formally permitted street musicians to play on and around the bridge with flutes, fiddles, trumpets and crumhorns.
- When the parallel Rathausbrücke was planned in the 1890s, the city seriously considered pulling down the entire Krämerbrücke.
- The last surviving tower of St Benedict's Church at the western end was demolished in 1895 to make room for that new bridge.
- All but four of the houses on the bridge are owned by the city of Erfurt itself.
- Rebuilding war-damaged houses in 1952 required new timber braces cut from logs 11.5 metres long, which took months to obtain.
- The bridge festival draws about 130,000 people and is opened by an actor playing Till Eulenspiegel, the prankster said to have taught a donkey to read in Erfurt.
Why it is worth it
Few streets in Europe run over a river without anyone noticing, but the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt does exactly that. Walk along its cobbles and you see only a narrow lane between half-timbered houses with shop windows, house signs and old doors; the six stone arches carrying it all over the Breitstrom, an arm of the Gera, are visible only from the riverbank. It is one of the very few bridges anywhere still lined with inhabited buildings, and it has been lived on for more than five centuries, longer than any other bridge in Europe.
A crossing has stood at this ford since at least the early Middle Ages. A wooden bridge is recorded in 1117, after one of the fires that kept destroying it, and by 1156 documents describe a market bridge with traders' stalls on both sides. After a run of further fires the city bought the bridge rights from the local monasteries in 1293, and the present stone bridge of limestone and sandstone was completed in 1325. When a great fire in 1472 swept through half of Erfurt, the stalls were replaced by timber-framed houses, finished in 1486. Wooden braces fixed beside the vaults let the buildings overhang the stonework, widening the structure to about 26 metres. The original 62 narrow houses were later merged into the 32 that stand today, three storeys high, with shops below and homes above. The name, meaning "merchants' bridge", has been in use since 1510.
Erfurt, now the capital of Thuringia, grew rich at a crossroads of the Via Regia, the medieval trade and pilgrim route across Europe, and the bridge was part of that road. Over the centuries its stalls sold herbs and wine from the monasteries, then paper, silk, spices, goldsmiths' work and the blue dye woad that made the city's fortune. At its eastern end the bridge still passes through the arch of St Giles' Church, first mentioned in 1110; the matching church at the western end, St Benedict's, was demolished in the 19th century. Several houses were damaged in an air raid in 1945 and rebuilt in 1954, and the whole structure was thoroughly restored in 1985–86. About 80 people live on the bridge today, and a foundation set up by the city in 1996 looks after it and decides what kind of businesses may trade there. Every June since 1975 the Krämerbrückenfest turns the bridge and its surroundings into a three-day medieval festival.
Getting there
The bridge stands in the historic centre of Erfurt, about 0.4 km from the city centre, linking the squares of Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt. The nearest airport is Erfurt-Weimar Airport (ERF), about 5 km away. Erfurt Hauptbahnhof, the city's main railway station, is on the southern edge of the old town.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Duchess Anna Amalia Library 21.2 km · library-building
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From the encyclopaedia
The Krämerbrücke is a medieval arch bridge in the city of Erfurt, in Thuringia, central Germany, which is lined with half-timbered shops and houses on both sides of a cobblestone street. It is one of the few remaining bridges in the world that have inhabited buildings. It has been continuously inhabited for over 500 years, longer than any other bridge in Europe. The stone, pedestrian bridge, which dates from 1325, is one of the oldest secular structures in Erfurt. It spans the Breitstrom, a branch of Gera River, and connects two town squares – Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt.
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