 The photo above shows the south side of the Herrengasse, the street that begins on the west side of the Market Place. At the far end of the Herrengasse is the Burgturm (Burg Tower) with the Franciscan church just in front of it. Built in 1285, the Franciscan Church is the oldest church in Rothenburg. The Franciscan altar, carved by Tilman Riemenschneider, which depicts St. Francis of Assissi , was originally housed in the Franciscan Church, but it is now in the north aisle of St. Jacob's Church. In former times, the Herrengasse was the site of the cattle market. Today, it is the center of the tourist trade, where the Christmas shops, the Christmas Museum and the nicer hotels are located. The photo below shows Rothenburg's most famous store, Käthe Wohlfahrt's Christmas Village. The store is located in several separate buildings. The Christmas Museum is in one of these buildings with an entrance through the store. The truck parked outside the store has fake packages on the top of it.   The photo below shows two of the houses on Herrengasse where the wealthy patrician families formerly lived. These houses have been turned into hotels and shops. Notice that the upper floors have windows that look like barn doors. At the top of each house, you can see a bar sticking out that was used with a pulley to hoist sacks of grain up to the two top floors. The citizens of Rothenburg were required to keep a two-year supply of grain so that they would have food during a long siege.  Note that the houses were built very close together, but they have separate walls so that the water could drain off the roofs and so that fires would not spread. RathausPreviousHome
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