Castle experience in the city

Two fortresses sit enthroned over Erfurt

The city’s highest beer garden, panoramic views, historic walls, mysterious passageways, concerts in the summer. The Petersberg Citadel has a lot to offer. This is also true of Cyriaksburg Castle, which is located in the centre of the garden and leisure paradise egapark and houses the German Horticultural Museum. In Erfurt, modern offerings meet a historical backdrop.

“Erfurt is in the best possible location. There must be a city there.” These enthusiastic words were spoken by the Reformer Martin Luther, who studied and became a priest in Erfurt. More than 500 years later, Clueso, currently the city’s most famous son, put it like this: “Erfurt is cool and it is simply great here.” You might even meet the singer-songwriter in one of the many cafés as you stroll through the city.

The Petersberg Citadel – emperors, kings, concerts and spectacular sunsets

The best place to begin your journey of discovery is right in the middle of the bustling city centre with its medieval and Mediterranean old-town atmosphere. Along the Via Regia, in the Anger shopping district, on the Merchants’ Bridge, in Wenigemarkt, in the Lange Brücke shopping street, in the fish market and on Marktstrasse, small shops, boutiques, galleries, ice-cream parlours and restaurants are waiting to be discovered and invite you to while away some time and treat yourself. And if you are standing in the city’s biggest square, you have reached Domplatz and can stare spellbound at the monumental Cathedral of St Mary and the Petersberg Citadel – which sits enthroned on a 231-metre-high hill in the heart of the city.

You can reach the twelve-hectare star-shaped fortress via the panoramic trail, which is suitable for disabled people, or the glass lift. Up here, an exciting interactive and multimedia journey through the eventful history of the hill awaits you. The largest and only extensively preserved Baroque city fortress in Central Europe has a lot of stories to tell. In exhibitions, guided tours and the app, you can find out how settlers, monks, emperors, kings and soldiers lived on the hill over the centuries – and whether the Emperor Napoleon really wanted to jump down from the bastion wall on his white horse. The tour through the passages deep down in the fortress walls is particularly exciting for adults and children alike. With a torch in your hand and an ear to the wall, you can experience how the soldiers must have felt as they listened out for the enemy in the dark, narrow passageways. Maybe the enemy had dug a tunnel into the hill to attack the fortress.When you return to daylight, you will find a number of spectacular panoramic photo spots as you walk along the top of the two-kilometre-long bastion.

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Tip

From Peter’s Gate, you have the best view of the cathedral and the old town. Behind the defense barracks, you can watch the sunset at eye level from the “Ost-Terrasse” - the highest beer garden in the city - with a glass of beer, wine or apple spritzer, comfortably seated in a deckchair or floating on the large swing. You also have an excellent view over the rooftops of Erfurt from the “Glashütte Petersberg” restaurant on the upper plateau of the Petersberg. In the summer, concerts take place in the festival grounds as well as the Petersberg Festival. Clueso has also played here.

Cyriaksburg Castle – a unique multimedia garden paradise in the leisure park

There were many underground passageways under the citadel. One of them connected the Petersberg Citadel to Cyriaksburg Castle, a fortress that was built in 1825 outside the gates of the city. It is no longer possible to take this short cut, but the 1.5-kilometre walk with the ascent up the 265-metre-high Cyriaksberg is worth your while. The erstwhile fortress complex is situated in the centre of the 36-hectare garden and leisure paradise of the egapark and houses the German Horticultural Museum in the historical setting of the former defensive barracks. A whole museum for horticulture – that is unique in Germany! In the multi-award-winning permanent exhibition “Garten! Vom Paradies ins Regal” (Garden! From Paradise to the Shelf), you will, in underground fortress passageways, cannon courtyards and the 40 metre-deep fortress well, discover all kinds of secrets from the world of gardens and flora – colourfully, digitally, through play and via the app. Discover one of the world’s biggest seeds and let the moving (and bizarre-looking) plant Valentine tell you and show you what plants do for us humans and animals so that we can live, breathe and eat. And if you want to enjoy a fantastic view of Erfurt, climb the 61-step spiral staircase of the neighbouring fortress tower to the viewing platform.

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