Germany's most perfectly preserved medieval city — where the Krämerbrücke (Europe's longest inhabited bridge) hides 32 shops and apartments beneath its half-timbered roofline, Martin Luther studied for the priesthood and entered his Augustinian monastery, and a 1998 construction find revealed the finest medieval Jewish treasure hoard in Germany
Erfurt (220,000) is the capital of Thuringia and the most completely preserved medieval city in Germany — unlike Dresden or Leipzig, Erfurt was almost undamaged in WWII and retains its medieval street plan, 30+ churches, and the Krämerbrücke intact. The Krämerbrücke (1325) is a 120-metre bridge with 32 inhabited half-timbered shops and apartments built directly above its arches — the longest medieval inhabited bridge in northern Europe. Martin Luther studied at Erfurt University (1501–1505) and entered the Augustinian monastery here in 1505 after a near-death lightning storm.
Erfurt was first mentioned by St. Boniface in 742 CE as an already-established settlement on the Gera River, a key crossing on the Via Regia (the great medieval east-west trade road through Europe). The medieval Jewish community of Erfurt (11th–14th century) left behind the Alte Synagoge (built c. 1094 — among the oldest surviving synagogue buildings in Europe), a ritual bath (Mikveh), and the Erfurt Treasure, a hoard of gold and silver discovered in 1998 by construction workers, which is the finest collection of medieval Jewish silverwork anywhere in Germany. These monuments received UNESCO…