is unique for one of the best restored original city – cores from medieval times. The symbol of the city, the monumental ensemble of dom- and severi-church caracterizes the old town. 

The name erfurt is founded by the fact that „furt“ simply means a shallow part of a river, allowing it to cross the river at that spot. This spot shall have been at the merchands bridge in the center of erfurt. 

Already in early medieval times erfurt had a special position as a trading center: it has been the crossroad between „via regia“ and the „hansestraße“, the two majour trading roads running through europe east-west and north-south. 

Following the rules of court every trader wa forced to offer his goods at this crossroad while waiting for enough other traders to convoy the planned way in case of security. As part of the pilgrim path all the way to famous santiago di compostella, nowadays there are plenty of pilgrims heading southwest through our city. We are a certified hostal for the pilgrims and long range backpackers. 

A special role in the development of the city a little plant calles „waid“ had, being the source for the colouring of textiles in blue, before indigo was imported from the so called new world. Unique is also our merchants bridge with it´s 32 houses, one of two inhabited bridges worldwide. 

Often called „the rome of thuringia“ the city has a rich history, hosting and housing dozens of persons with huge historic value, from martin luther to goethe, schiller, humboldt, bach, tsar alexander and napoleon bonaparte just to name the most important.