By Ines Keane
Most bridges are for crossing. The one in Erfurt is for living on. Houses stand along both sides of it, shoulder to shoulder, and the road runs between them like a covered lane.
Where and how big
Wikipedia calls Erfurt the capital and largest city of Thuringia. Wikivoyage, a community travel guide, says it has over 215,000 inhabitants and was an important trading centre on the Via Regia in the Middle Ages. A travel site and a music-travel page give the first written record as 742, when a diocese was established in “Erphesfurt”.
The Krämerbrücke, in numbers
The Erfurt tourism board gives the Merchants’ Bridge a length of 120 metres. It says the bridge was first built in wood, with no date given, and rebuilt in stone in 1325. It says there were originally 62 narrow buildings, and that redevelopment left 32. A music-travel page also gives 1325 and 32 buildings, with a church at each end, of which the Ägidienkirche is still in use.
Wikipedia disagrees on the date, calling it a 15th-century bridge over the Gera. We show both. The sources also disagree on the claim. The tourism board says it is the longest series of inhabited buildings on any bridge in Europe. Wikivoyage says it is the oldest of the world’s few remaining inhabited bridges and that over 80 people still live there. Wikipedia calls it unique in Europe north of the Alps. Three claims, none the same.
What is in the houses? The tourism board lists galleries, cafés and boutiques selling crafts, Thuringian blue printed fabrics, hand-painted ceramics, handblown glassware, jewellery, wood carvings and antiques. We name no shop. None of these pages names one we could source.
The blue behind the wealth
Woad is a plant that yields a blue dye. A travel site, Europe for Visitors, says medieval Erfurt prospered by selling it across Europe, calls it “the golden fleece of Thuringia”, and says tropical indigo displaced it in the 16th century. The music-travel page says Erfurt was one of six Thuringian towns at the centre of the German woad trade, without dates. Wikipedia says Erfurt and “five other” towns, then lists four names. We give the count as each source gives it.
Cathedral Hill
The Mariendom and the Severikirche stand side by side on the Domberg, and the music-travel page says they form the city’s emblem. Both are reached by a wide flight of steps, the Domstufen, which lead up to Domplatz, the largest square in Erfurt according to Wikipedia. Wikipedia also says the cathedral houses Gloriosa, the largest free-swinging medieval bell in the world. Wikivoyage calls the Severikirche one of the most important Gothic buildings in Germany.
Two universities, three dates
Europe for Visitors says the university was founded in 1392 and was the fourth in Germany. The music-travel page agrees on 1392 and adds that it closed in 1816 and was refounded in 1994. Wikipedia says 1379, and says 1392 is when St Michael’s Church became the university church. Another conflict, left standing.
The market on Domplatz
Erfurt’s Christmas market stands on Domplatz, in front of the Mariendom and Severikirche. It usually opens in late November and runs until just before Christmas. Check the organiser’s site for this year’s dates and hours.
The other square
The Anger is a long square in the eastern centre where all the tram lines meet, according to Wikipedia. It names the main post office, built in 1886, and the Angermuseum, in a Baroque palace of 1711.
What kind of sources these are
A tourism board, two travel sites, a music-travel page and Wikipedia. None is an archive.
What we left out
Opening hours, prices, the Jewish medieval heritage of Erfurt (a World Heritage listing of 2023, according to Wikipedia) and twentieth-century history. Those deserve their own sourced pieces, and a line each would be too little. Sephari has no maker in Erfurt to point to yet, and we will not invent one.
Quick answers
How long is the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt? According to the Erfurt tourism board it is 120 metres long. It says 62 buildings once stood on it and 32 remain.
What made medieval Erfurt rich? A travel site, Europe for Visitors, says woad, a blue dye plant, sold across Europe. It says indigo from the tropics displaced it in the 16th century.
Where is the Erfurt Christmas market? On Domplatz, in front of the Mariendom and Severikirche. It usually opens in late November; check the organiser’s site for this year’s dates.
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Roam first. Shop later.