Fritzlar

Around 723 Boniface cut down an oak sacred to the local population at Geismar near here, and according to the account written by his pupil Willibald he used its wood to build a chapel; a monastery followed and Fritzlar grew around it. The cathedral holds a treasury with early medieval reliquaries. The town keeps a nearly complete circuit of walls with the Grey Tower, at thirty-eight metres one of the tallest surviving town wall towers in Germany. The market square is ringed by timber-framed houses, the oldest dated to 1274. In 919 Henry the Fowler was elected king in Fritzlar, an event often taken as a starting point for the German kingdom.

History

The monastery that grew up here after Boniface was turned in 1005 into a college of secular canons, who no longer lived together in monastic simplicity but kept their own households, and the college was dissolved only in 1803. The town hall, first recorded in 1109, carries a stone relief of Saint Martin (Wikipedia, Fritzlar).

Highlights

• The Grey Tower - a 38-metre wall tower, among the tallest in Germany.
• The cathedral treasury - early medieval reliquaries and metalwork.
• The 1274 house - the oldest dated timber-framed building on the square.
• The wall circuit - a nearly complete ring with towers.

When to go

April to October; the treasury keeps limited hours and closes Mondays. The town is small and quiet, and rarely crowded.

Things to know

The Boniface oak site is at Geismar with nothing to see. The treasury has short hours. The town is seen in two hours.

Nearby

Kassel lies northeast; the Kellerwald park is west.

Key facts