Top Things to Do in Nuremberg
20 must-see attractions and experiences
Nuremberg is a city that refuses to look away from its own history. The second-largest city in Bavaria stares directly at its role in the Third Reich -- the Rally Grounds still stand, the courtroom where Nazi leaders faced justice is open to visitors -- while simultaneously asserting a civic identity rooted in medieval craftsmanship, Albrecht Durer's Renaissance genius, and some of Germany's finest sausages. This dual nature gives Nuremberg a gravity that Munich, with its beer-garden cheerfulness, does not possess. The Altstadt (Old Town), largely rebuilt after Allied bombing destroyed ninety percent of it in 1945, is ringed by five kilometres of intact medieval walls and anchored by the Imperial Castle on its sandstone ridge. Within these walls, half-timbered houses line the Pegnitz River, Gothic churches rise above market squares, and artisan workshops cluster in the Handwerkerhof at the city gate. Nuremberg's Christmas market, the Christkindlesmarkt, is the most famous in Germany, but the city rewards visitors in every season. First-time visitors should plan at least two full days: one for the medieval Old Town and its museums, another for the Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Memorium Nuremberg Trials. These two Nurembergs are inseparable, and understanding one without the other leaves the city's story incomplete.
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Our top picks for visitors to Nuremberg
Imperial Castle of Nuremberg
Historic SitesPerched on a sandstone outcrop above the Old Town, the Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg) served as the residence of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors for over 500 years, and its Sinwell Tower and Deep Well (over 50 metres into solid rock) date to the twelfth century. The castle complex includes a Romanesque chapel with a double-level design that separated emperor from commoners, and the palace museum displays imperial regalia and chronicles the castle's architectural evolution. From the ramparts, the view extends across the entire Altstadt roofscape to the surrounding Franconian hills.
Burg 17, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds
Museums & GalleriesHoused inside the unfinished Congress Hall that the Nazi regime modelled after the Roman Colosseum, this museum examines the rise of the NSDAP, the propaganda machinery of the Nuremberg Rallies, and the city's exploitation as a stage set for fascist spectacle. The permanent exhibition, "Fascination and Terror," uses original film footage, photographs, and documents to trace how ordinary Germans were drawn into the movement. The building itself -- colossal, unfinished, deliberately left as a ruin -- is as much a part of the exhibition as anything on the walls.
Bayernstraße 110, 90478 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Nürnberg Zoo
Outdoor ActivitiesSet in a hilly, forested landscape on the city's eastern edge, Nuremberg Zoo spans 67 hectares of natural terrain and houses over 300 species in enclosures designed to integrate with the existing landscape of rock outcrops, streams, and mature trees. The dolphin lagoon, one of only two in Germany, is controversial but architecturally striking, and the large predator enclosures (snow leopards, Siberian tigers) use the natural elevation changes to provide expansive habitats. The zoo's conservation breeding programmes for Barbary macaques and bearded vultures are nationally recognised.
Am Tiergarten 30, 90480 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Handwerkerhof Nürnberg
Markets & ShoppingTucked inside the medieval city walls near the main train station, this cluster of half-timbered workshops recreates a traditional artisan courtyard where craftspeople produce and sell Nuremberg's signature goods: Lebkuchen (gingerbread), handmade pewter, leather goods, and the city's famous Zwetschgenmännla (dried-plum figures). The Handwerkerhof is small and admittedly tourist-oriented, but the artisans are genuine and the products are made on-site rather than imported.
Königstraße 82, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Germanic National Museum
Museums & GalleriesGermany's largest museum of cultural history occupies a large complex that incorporates a former Carsoian monastery and houses over 1.3 million objects spanning Germanic art and culture from prehistory to the present. Highlights include the oldest surviving terrestrial globe (the Behaim Globe from 1492), Veit Stoss's carved wooden altarpieces, Renaissance scientific instruments, and the original manuscripts of Martin Luther. The museum is impossible to see in a single visit; choose two or three departments and explore them properly.
Kartäusergasse 1, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Congress Hall
Historic SitesThe Congress Hall is the largest surviving example of Nazi monumental architecture: a horseshoe-shaped colosseum designed to seat 50,000 people, clad in granite blocks and intentionally modelled on the Roman Colosseum at 1.5 times the scale. Construction halted in 1939 and the building was never completed; its exposed brick interior and empty window frames convey incompleteness as powerfully as any finished structure could convey completeness. The Documentation Center occupies part of the building, but the exterior circuit is freely walkable.
Bayernstraße 100, 90471 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Memorium Nuremberg Trials
Historic SitesCourtroom 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice is where the International Military Tribunal tried twenty-two major Nazi war criminals from November 1945 to October 1946, establishing the precedent that individuals could be held accountable for crimes against humanity. The courtroom itself has been preserved and the museum exhibition traces the trial proceedings with original documents, film footage, and audio recordings. The room is still an active courtroom, so access depends on the court schedule.
Bärenschanzstraße 72, 90429 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Toy Museum
Museums & GalleriesNuremberg has been the centre of the German toy industry since the Middle Ages, and this museum in a patrician townhouse traces that history from hand-carved wooden figures through tin soldiers to Märklin model railways and modern electronics. The top floor houses one of the largest model railway layouts in Europe, meticulously detailed and operational. The collection reveals how toy-making technology paralleled industrial innovation, from hand-painting to injection moulding.
Karlstraße 13-15, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Ehekarussell
Notable AttractionsThis monumental fountain by Jürgen Weber, installed in 1984 at the Hans-Sachs-Platz, depicts six scenes from the married life cycle as described in a poem by Nuremberg's Renaissance poet Hans Sachs. The bronze and stone figures range from tender embrace to violent domestic conflict, with unflinching realism that shocked the city when it was unveiled. It is one of the most controversial and visually arresting public fountains in Germany, depicting love's full spectrum without sanitisation.
Am Weißen Turm, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Museums Nuremberg - Albrecht Dürer House
Museums & GalleriesAlbrecht Dürer, the defining artist of the Northern Renaissance, lived and worked in this half-timbered house near the castle from 1509 until his death in 1528. The museum recreates his workshop with period-accurate tools and printing presses, and an actress in period costume portrays Agnes Dürer, guiding visitors through the house and its history. Original Dürer prints are displayed alongside explanations of his revolutionary woodcut and engraving techniques.
Albrecht-Dürer-Straße 39, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Cultural Experiences
The Frauenkirche and its Mannleinlaufen clock represent Nuremberg's living medieval traditions, connecting present-day visitors to the imperial ceremonies and civic rituals that defined the city's identity for five centuries.
Frauenkirche
Cultural ExperiencesThis Gothic hall church on the Hauptmarkt (Main Market Square) was built in 1352-62 on the site of a demolished synagogue, an origin that reflects the anti-Jewish violence of that era. The church's mechanical clock, the Männleinlaufen, performs daily at noon: seven electors circle the figure of Emperor Charles IV, commemorating the Golden Bull of 1356 that required each new emperor to hold his first Imperial Diet in Nuremberg. The interior houses important medieval and Renaissance altarpieces.
Hauptmarkt 14, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Natural Wonders
Affenfelsen
Natural WondersThis rocky outcrop formation in the Nuremberg Zoo is home to a large colony of Barbary macaques that roam freely across the natural stone landscape. The exhibit design uses the site's existing geology -- sandstone cliffs and caves -- rather than artificial structures, allowing the macaques to display natural climbing, grooming, and social behaviours. The colony is one of Europe's most successful captive breeding groups for this endangered species.
Am Ölberg, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Bürgermeistergarten
Natural WondersTucked behind the Imperial Castle walls on the north side of the castle hill, this small formal garden has a quiet retreat from the Altstadt below. The garden features geometric flower beds, clipped hedges, and a pergola with views over the rooftops of the Sebald quarter. Originally the private garden of Nuremberg's mayor, it was opened to the public and maintains a manicured, intimate atmosphere entirely different from the fortress architecture surrounding it.
Neutor, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Notable Attractions
Nuremberg's public fountains, bridges, and squares form a walking circuit through the Altstadt that rewards slow exploration. The Ehekarussell, Tugendbrunnen, and Narrenschiffbrunnen together constitute one of the finest collections of literary and allegorical public sculpture in any German city.
Museumsbrücke
Notable AttractionsThis stone bridge over the Pegnitz River provides the definitive Nuremberg photograph: the Heilig-Geist-Spital (Holy Spirit Hospital) reflected in the water below, with its Gothic arches straddling the river like a Venetian palazzo transplanted to Franconia. The bridge is centrally located and connects the northern and southern halves of the Altstadt. The view is best at twilight when the hospital's facade is illuminated and the reflections double in the calm river.
90403 Nuremberg, Germany · View on Map
Narrenschiffbrunnen
Notable AttractionsThe Ship of Fools Fountain, based on Sebastian Brant's 1494 satirical poem, features bronze figures of fools and grotesques riding a stone ship through a shallow basin. Each figure is a different vice or folly catalogued in Brant's text, from gluttony to vanity. The fountain sits on a quiet square near the Weisstum tower and is easy to miss, but its detailed craftsmanship and literary source material make it one of the Altstadt's most intellectually engaging public artworks.
Plobenhofstraße 10, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Tugendbrunnen
Notable AttractionsThe Fountain of Virtues, created by Benedikt Wurzelbauer in 1589, stands in the Lorenzplatz and has allegorical female figures representing the seven virtues (Justice, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Temperance, Patience, and Faith), each pouring water from her symbolic attribute into the basin below. The Renaissance bronze work is beautiful in its detail, and the fountain is one of the finest surviving examples of sixteenth-century German decorative metalwork.
Lorenzer Pl., 90402 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Albrecht-Dürer-Denkmal
Notable AttractionsThis bronze statue of Albrecht Dürer, erected in 1840 in the Albrecht-Dürer-Platz, was the first public monument in Germany dedicated to an artist rather than a ruler or military figure. The statue depicts Dürer in his characteristic Renaissance attire, holding an engraving tool, and stands on a granite pedestal inscribed with tributes from the city. Its placement near the Dürer House creates a natural circuit for visitors following the artist's footsteps through the city.
Albrecht-Dürer-Platz 12, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Unschlittplatz
Notable AttractionsThis small, irregularly shaped square on the banks of the Pegnitz takes its name from the Unschlitthaus, a medieval warehouse for tallow (Unschlitt) used in candle-making. The square is one of the most photogenic corners of the Altstadt, with half-timbered buildings leaning over the river, a stone footbridge, and views toward the Henkerturm (Hangman's Tower). It is rarely crowded and captures the intimate, residential character of medieval Nuremberg better than the more famous market squares.
Unschlittpl., 90403 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Historic Sites
Nuremberg's historic sites span from the eleventh-century Imperial Castle to the twentieth-century Nazi Rally Grounds and the courtroom where international criminal law was born. This range makes the city one of the most historically layered in Germany, where medieval imperial power, Renaissance art, fascist ideology, and post-war justice all left permanent architectural marks.
Spittlertorturm
Historic SitesThis imposing tower at the southwestern corner of Nuremberg's medieval wall circuit rises over 40 metres and served as both a defensive fortification and a city gate. The tower's distinctive conical roof and massive stone base have survived since the fifteenth century, and it remains one of the best-preserved gate towers in the city wall system. The surrounding area has been pedestrianised, allowing visitors to appreciate the tower's full height from multiple angles.
Spittlertorzwinger 2, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Frauentor
Historic SitesThe Frauentor (Women's Gate) is the main eastern entrance to Nuremberg's Old Town, situated directly outside the central train station. The gate consists of a round tower flanked by sections of the original city wall, and passing through it is the most atmospheric way to enter the Altstadt on foot. The transition from modern train station plaza to medieval walled city happens in a single step, making the gate a powerful threshold between Nuremberg's present and past.
Unnamed Road, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany · View on Map
Planning Your Visit
Best Time to Visit
May through September offers the warmest weather for walking the Altstadt and the Rally Grounds. Late November through December is peak season for the Christkindlesmarkt. March and October provide mild weather and fewer tourists, making museum visits more comfortable.
Booking Advice
The Memorium Nuremberg Trials should be checked online for courtroom availability, as Courtroom 600 closes for active proceedings. The Documentation Center and Germanic National Museum benefit from advance ticket purchase on busy summer weekends. Most other attractions, including the castle, accept walk-in visitors.
Save Money
The Nurnberg Card (available for two consecutive days) provides free public transport and free or reduced entry to all major museums and the castle, saving roughly fifty percent over individual admission fees. The card also covers the zoo and the Toy Museum.
Local Etiquette
Nuremberg takes its food traditions seriously: order the local Nurnberger Bratwurst (small, finger-sized sausages served in threes, sixes, or twelves) rather than the larger Franconian variety, and pair them with sauerkraut and local Franconian beer rather than Bavarian wheat beer. At the Rally Grounds, maintain a respectful, reflective demeanour; this is a site of remembrance, not entertainment.
Book Your Experiences
Guided tours, tickets, and activities in Nuremberg