In the last blog post, you saw that we visited a few towns in the Harz Mountains region of Germany and that I wrote quite a bit about our stop in Quedlinburg, whose old town is part of a UNESCO site.
The town of Goslar, where we based ourselves for the weekend, wowed me even more than Quedlinburg.
Goslar is also part of a UNESCO site, and the full name of the site is “Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System”.
Quedlingubrg was impressive with its 2,000-plus half-timbered houses, but Goslar has about 6 times that amount.
One of the first buildings you notice at Goslar’s Market Square is not even a half-timbered building though.
It was the former hall of the cloth merchants guild and it was built in 1494.
It’s noticeable not only for its color but for this little guy way up high on the corner of the building.
It’s called the Ducat Maniken and from ground level, you can tell that he’s pulling his butt cheek over to, um, have a movement.
What I couldn’t see until I enlarged the photo, though, is that he also appears to excreting gold coins.
And yes, you can clearly see his anatomical correctness.
Oh, those crazy Germans.
Also of note on the Market Square are both this fountain from the 12th century and the building behind it.
The fountain is topped by an eagle, the symbol of Goslar.
The building behind the fountain is the town hall that was built in the 15th century.
You can go inside and watch a little film about the history of Goslar, but the main attraction in the building is the former council chamber room that is filled with wood panel paintings from the 16th century.
Unfortunately you can’t actually go into the room.
There is a little glass enclosure that juts into the room, and even to get into that you have to kneel down and tilt your head to see the panel paintings through the glass.
The best you can do (or at least the best I could do) is to take a photo of a photo of the panels that’s displayed in the hallway.
You can see how detailed the paintings are and you should also be able to make out the intricate wood scrolling above the heads in each panel.
Our next stop was the St. Cosmas and St. Damian church, also known as the Market Church.
Notice that the two towers (hey, that sounds like a good name for a book!) are different from each other.
The north tower – the one on the left – has a viewing tower that is accessible by climbing up 232 steps.
On display in the church are these little Romanesque stained glass panels.
They date from around the year 1250 and depict scenes from the life of Saints Cosmas and Damian, after whom the church is named.
On our way to a place called the Zwinger, I was playing around with different settings on the camera and took some black-and-white photos.
I kinda like it – what do you think?
The Zwinger, the fortified tower seen below, was built in 1517.
It is 24 meters (78 feet) around and 6 meters (19 feet) thick, and about 1,000 people could fit inside if they needed protection.
Today it houses a Late Middle Ages museum and there are also a few holiday rental apartments inside it.
If I ever visit Goslar again I’d stay there.
Around the other side of the Zwinger is this lovely little pond with half-timbered houses and a view of the Rammelsberg mountain behind it.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.
One of the reasons we like getting self-guided walking tour maps when they’re available from a town’s tourist information office is that they do take you off the beaten path.
If you notice the first photo I posted for this blog, there is not another person in sight.
In this next photo, there is also nobody in sight.
The walking tour – which had 48 points of interest on it, by the way – took us to see that statue of Moritz of Saxony.
He was a famous marshal (a highly decorated general in the French military) who was born in Goslar in 1696 and died in France in 1750.
The little park that the statue is in is just lovely. It’s not all that far from the Market Square, yet there was not a tourist to be seen.
In the vast majority of towns we’ve been to this is the case. Tourists and tour groups tend to stay around the main square and don’t venture very far away.
My recommendation is to get yourself a walking tour map for the next town you visit and see something besides the main tourist sights that everyone else sees.
You’ll see some great things and likely have them all to yourself.
The next destination on the walking tour was the St. Anne’s House.
What that sign says is that when the garden gate is open, you can visit the St. Anne’s House.
Unfortunately, as you can see the garden gate was closed and we couldn’t visit.
I was kind of disappointed for a couple of reasons.
One is that the house is the oldest unaltered half-timbered house in Goslar.
Another is that there is a chapel in the house that contains a beautiful Baroque altar as well as a magnificent tapestry.
Oh well, maybe next time.
The square and circular towers that you see here were once part of the city’s fortified gate.
They are very well-preserved considering they are from the 13th century.
Remember earlier when I said the walking tour map took us to the statue of Moritz of Saxony and there was nobody else in sight?
Continuing to follow the tour, we entered the Ulrichscher Garden where there was also not another tourist in sight.
It was a lovely Baroque garden with whimsical statues and the dovecote you see there.
The garden was very close to the market square, so when we reached that again we sat at a table outside a restaurant to have a drink and a bite to eat.
Four times a day, a building just to the right of that table (you can’t see it in the photo) has carillon bells that chime four times a day.
A bunch of figures then rotate out of an opening at the top of the building to commemorate 1,000 years of mining in the area.
Luckily we had sat down just in time for the show.
This building houses the hotel where we stayed.
It’s called the Alte Münze or Old Mint.
Part of the building is actual remains from the 15th-century mint.
We stayed in a lovely suite and the rest of the building was as charming as could be with a small bar, a nice breakfast area and an outdoor courtyard.
This building is the Imperial Palace.
It was originally built in the 11th century under Heinrich (Henry) III, king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor.
Earlier you read that we saw a little carillon show commemorating the history of mining in Goslar.
You’ve also seen the Rammelsberg mountain referenced a few times, and that’s where the mining took place.
At the beginning of this post you read that Goslar is part of a UNESCO site.
After we checked out of our hotel on Sunday, we stopped at the mining museum – the “Mines of Rammelsberg” part of the UNESCO site – that’s advertised on the mine car in the photo above.
As mentioned earlier, mining was an industry in the Goslar area for 1,000 years, and there is evidence that ore was actually extracted from the mountain as far back as 3,000 years ago.
Legend has it that back in the 10th century, a knight by the name of Ramm tied up his horse while he was hunting.
While waiting, the horse pawed at the ground and uncovered silver ore.
Depiction of Ramm’s horse
The Rammelsberg mountain was supposedly named after the knight.
In addition to silver, the mountain was also mined for copper, zinc and lead.
There are several different tours you can take at the museum and all of them start in what used to be the changing room area for the mine workers.
In case it’s not clear to you what happens in a changing room, a helpful picture of a big, hairy man getting changed is there for all to see.
We chose the Mine Train tour and this is what we got to ride in.
Seeing Sean standing next to the train, you can imagine how cramped it is with about 10 adults in each car. Both of us had to sit hunched over in the car.
Everyone on the tour has to wear a hardhat to go down into the former mine.
The tour was conducted only in German, but having read up on it a bit we got the gist of things.
The tour lasts about an hour with the guide explaining how the miners worked throughout the ages as technology progressed.
There are several above-ground buildings that you can explore on your own as well. The buildings contain various exhibits, and the gift shop will loan you a free audio guide to provide additional information.
The audio guide was actually pretty cool because all you had to carry around was the headphones.
If an exhibit had audio to listen to, you simply had to plug your headphones into the jack located at the exhibit and listen to the explanation.
The gift shop programs in the appropriate language for you before you start exploring.
One of the exhibits is by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who were famous for wrapping up landmarks – such as the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris – in fabric.
That car transported the last of the ore from Rammelsberg and the work is called “Package On A Hunt”.
There was a lot of information about how dangerous it was to work in the mines.
Workers died in various gruesome ways including from mines collapsing, accidental explosions, fire, drowning if the mine got flooded, suffocation, getting crushed to death by falling rock and other horrible methods.
There was also information about the history of mining as well as the social, economic and cultural lives of the miners and their families.
If you are ever in the Harz Mountains area of Germany, I highly recommend a visit to both Goslar and the Rammelsberg Mine Museum.
