Marburg

Elisabeth of Thuringia founded a hospital at Marburg and died there in 1231 at twenty-four; canonised four years later, she drew pilgrims in such numbers that the Teutonic Order built the Elisabethkirche from 1235, generally regarded as the first purely Gothic church in Germany, without Romanesque elements. The town climbs steeply from the Lahn to the landgraves' castle, with lanes running into staircases and public lifts installed to help. The university, founded in 1527, was the first Protestant one; the Brothers Grimm studied here. Marburg has an unusually large blind and partially sighted community, and the town is extensively adapted for it.

Background

Marburg grew where two early medieval trade routes met: one linked Cologne and Prague and crossed the Lahn here, the other led from the North Sea over the Alps to Italy. The settlement is first mentioned in 822 in the Reinhardsbrunner Chronik, coins show it has been a town since 1140, and it received town privileges in 1222. Elizabeth, the widowed landgravine of Thuringia, chose it as her dowager seat in 1228. It was the capital of Hessen-Marburg in 1485-1500 and once more in 1567-1605. Today it heads the Marburg-Biedenkopf district, with approximately 76,000 residents, and is a historic centre of the German pharmaceutical industry, with a BioNTech vaccine plant.

Source: Wikipedia, "Marburg"

What you'll find

• The Elisabethkirche - the first purely Gothic church built in Germany.
• The stepped lanes - a town so steep that streets become staircases.
• The landgraves' castle - a fortress and museum on the hilltop.
• The Grimm connection - the brothers' student years marked around the town.

When to go

April to October; the town is liveliest in term time. The castle closes Mondays. The climb to the upper town is steep, with public lifts as an alternative.

Good to know

The old town is genuinely steep and hard going. The castle museum is modest. Term breaks make the town noticeably quieter.

Nearby

Wetzlar lies south; the Kellerwald park is northwest.

Key facts