Bavaria · Self-guided walk
Bamberg in one walk 8 sights, 45 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Bamberg Old Town: 8 sights on one 3.0 km loop, about 45 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 3.0 km, a loop
- Time
- about 45 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Bamberger Dom
- Steps
- on Domplatz
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Bamberg walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Bamberg, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Bamberger Dom
the start
Four towers, and a choir at either end, so the Dom has two faces and no back at all. Walk all the way around it before you go inside. Then find the man on the horse in there and work out who he is. Nobody has settled that one yet.
Next: Alte Hofhaltung, 130 m, about 2 min.
2. Alte Hofhaltung
about 2 minutes of walking from the start
The broad wall on the square gives away nothing at all. Go in under the arch anyway. On the far side is a yard, closed in on every side by long half-timbered wings with open wooden galleries along them, and the noise stops at the gate. Most of the crowd out on the square never finds out.
Next: Ausblick auf Klein Venedig, 420 m, about 6 min, along Domplatz, Kasernstraße, Sandbad.
3. Ausblick auf Klein Venedig
about 8 minutes of walking from the start
This is the picture on every postcard of the town, and it is still worth the two minutes. Come late in the afternoon, when the light is on the far bank. Flat, short, and the only thing you have to do when you arrive is look.
Next: Schlenkerla, 200 m, about 3 min, along Sandbad, Kasernstraße.
4. Schlenkerla
about 11 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Sun 09:30–23:30
Barely wide enough for two, and the busiest strip of pavement on the hill. Everyone stands about in the lane here, because that is what happens outside this door, in any weather, and it has been happening for a very long time. Come down off the slope and see how tight it gets.
Next: Gabelmann, 340 m, about 5 min, along Dominikanerstraße, Untere Brücke, Mautgasse.
Lunch break
Stadtproviant, Austraße 15, about 10 m off the route, open Mon–Sat 09:00–16:00, Sun closed.
A small café on Austraße, and nearly everything on the menu is vegetarian or vegan. More on what to eat in Bamberg.
5. Gabelmann
about 16 minutes of walking from the start
The meeting point. Everybody in this town gives directions from this corner, so you will hear the name said out loud before you get there. It sits where the busy streets cross on the flat side, and it is the easiest thing to find on the whole level.
Next: E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater, 350 m, about 5 min, along Habergasse, Zinkenwörth.
6. E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater
about 22 minutes of walking from the start
A small square down at the southern edge, and the narrow house across from the playhouse is the point of coming. The man whose initials are on the sign kept house up there, and it is a museum now: two floors, low ceilings, steep stairs.
Next: Altes Rathaus, 380 m, about 6 min, along Zinkenwörth, Habergasse, Obere Brücke.
7. Altes Rathaus
about 27 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Tue–Sun 10:00–16:30, Mon closed
Everyone takes the same photograph from the same bridge. Take it, then go to the upstream side and lean over. A wooden house is sitting out there on the cutwater, in the current, with a whole building's worth of nerve.
Next: Villa Concordia, 530 m, about 8 min, along Karolinenstraße, Geyerswörthplatz, Schranne, Sonnenplätzchen, Concordiastraße.
8. Villa Concordia
about 35 minutes of walking from the start
The side you meet first is not the side that matters. The good one faces south, down two wings set square to each other, over a walled terrace garden with a cascade running down it to the river. So cross at the next bridge and look back from the far bank.
Back to the start: Bamberger Dom, 620 m, about 9 min, along Concordiastraße, Judenstraße, Vorderer Bach, Domplatz.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Bamberg.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 124 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Bamberg Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.