Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [370]
Ulm Card (1/2 days €8/12) Offers discounted museum admission and public transport.
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Sights
MÜNSTER
Ooh, it’s so big…first-time visitors gush as they strain their neck muscles gazing up to the Münster (Cathedral; Münsterplatz; admission free; 9am-4.45pm Jan & Feb, to 5.45pm Mar & Oct, to 6.45pm Apr-Jun & Sep, to 7.45pm Jul & Aug). It is. And rather beautiful. Celebrated for its 161.5m-high steeple, the world’s tallest, this Goliath of cathedrals took a staggering 500 years to build from the first stone laid in 1377. Note the hallmarks on each stone, inscribed by cutters who were paid by the block. Those intent on cramming the Münster into one photo, filigree spire and all, should lie down on the cobbles.
Only by puffing up 768 spiral steps to the 143m-high viewing platform of the tower (adult/student €4/2.50; last admission 1hr before closing) can you appreciate the Münster’s dizzying height. Up top there are terrific views of the Black Forest and, on cloud-free days, the Alps.
The Israelfenster, a stained-glass window above the west door, commemorates Jews killed during the Holocaust. The Gothic-style wooden pulpit canopy, as detailed as fine lace, eliminates echoes during sermons. Biblical figures and historical characters such as Pythagoras, who strums a lute, embellish the 15th-century oak choir stalls. The impressive stained-glass windows in the choir, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, were removed during WWII.
The Münster’s regular organ concerts (tickets €5; 11.30am most Sun year-round) are a musical treat.
STADTHAUS
Designed by Richard Meier, the contemporary aesthetic of the concrete-and-glass Stadthaus is a dramatic contrast to the Münster. The American architect caused uproar by erecting a postmodern building alongside the city’s Gothic giant, but the result is both striking and functional. The edifice stages exhibitions and events, and houses the tourist office and a cafe.
MARKTPLATZ
Lording it over the Marktplatz, the 14th-century, step-gabled Rathaus (Town Hall) sports an ornately painted Renaissance facade and a gilded astrological clock. Inside there is a replica of Berblinger’s flying machine. In front is the Fischkastenbrunnen, a fountain where fishmongers kept their catch alive on market days. The 36m-high glass pyramid behind the Rathaus is the city’s main library, the Zentralbibliothek, designed by Gottfried Böhm.
FISCHERVIERTEL & CITY WALL
On the third Monday of July, the mayor swears allegiance to the town’s 1397 constitution from the 1st-floor loggia of the early 17th-century baroque Schwörhaus (Oath House; Weinhof), three blocks west of the Rathaus.
The charming Fischerviertel, Ulm’s old fishers’ and tanners’ quarter, is slightly southwest. Here beautifully restored half-timbered houses huddle along the two channels of the Blau River, traversed by footbridges. Harbouring art galleries, rustic restaurants, courtyards and the crookedest hotel in the world (Click here), the cobbled lanes are ideal for a leisurely saunter.
South of the Fischerviertel, along the Danube’s north bank, runs the redbrick Stadtmauer (city wall), the height of which was reduced in the 19th century after Napoleon decided that a heavily fortified Ulm was against his best interests. Walk it for fine views over the river, the Altstadt and the colourful tile-roofed Metzgerturm (Butcher’s Tower), doing a Pisa by leaning 2m off-centre.
East of the Herdbrücke, the bridge to Neu-Ulm, a bronze plaque marks where Albrecht Berblinger, a tailor who invented a flying machine resembling a hang-glider, attempted to fly over the Danube in 1811. The so-called ‘Tailor of Ulm’ made an embarrassing splash landing, but his design was later shown to be workable (his failure apparently caused by a lack of thermals on that day).
EINSTEIN FOUNTAIN & MONUMENT
A nod to Ulm’s most famous son, Jürgen Goertz’s fiendishly funny bronze fountain shows a wild-haired, tongue-poking-out Albert Einstein, who was born in Ulm but left