Goslar: Half-Timbered Houses and Mining History
Accommodation in Goslar
Goslar brings together the history of the city and the history of mining to create a distinctive cultural profile. The historic Old Town and the Rammelsberg Ore Mine were jointly recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. The city also offers museums, guided tours, and a green belt formed from former ramparts. When planning your stay, it may be helpful to decide in advance whether you are particularly interested in architecture, collections, or the history of mining.
File:LSG Harz (Landkreis Goslar) - Zwischen Astfeld und Goslar (16).jpg
Photo: Ragnar1904 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Old Town, Town Hall, and Green Belt
Goslar’s historic Old Town preserves richly decorated half-timbered houses, winding lanes, slate roofs, and cobblestones. These features shape the cityscape in different ways: in the façades, the roofscape, and the street surfaces. Built between 1295 and 1326, the Town Hall adds a clearly dated landmark to the story of Goslar’s architecture.
The former ramparts also tell the story of how the city’s layout has changed. They were transformed into gardens and parks and today form an idyllic green belt around the city. In this way, the historic buildings and the redesigned ramparts represent two different aspects of the city’s history. When exploring Goslar by theme, you can look beyond half-timbered houses and the Town Hall to the transformation of the former fortifications.
Museums and Collections
The Goslar Museum displays the famous Krodo Altar from the early 12th century, a masterpiece of medieval art. It also has a coin collection featuring well over 1,000 Goslar coins; the total may change as cataloguing progresses. The altar and the coins offer different areas of focus: one is a medieval work of art, while the other is a collection of coins connected with Goslar.
The Mönchehaus Museum is dedicated to modern and contemporary art and presents changing exhibitions. If a particular exhibition is important to your plans, check the current programme before your visit. This helps you decide how to fit the museum into your cultural interests without confusing it with the historical collections at the Goslar Museum.
Mining History and Historical Guided Tours
The Rammelsberg Museum and Visitor Mine presents at least 3,000 years of ore mining history at and inside Rammelsberg across four museum buildings. This long span of time makes mining a distinct focus of Goslar’s cultural heritage. The carillon in Goslar’s Market Square also explores this theme: with a procession of figures and mining melodies, it tells the story of mining at Rammelsberg, from the legendary discovery by Knight Ramm to the modern era.
The Zwinger also houses a privately run museum of the Late Middle Ages. Exhibits include armour for knights and musketeers, instruments of torture, and weapons used by peasants in 1524. The museum therefore offers a different historical focus from the ore-mining attractions at Rammelsberg.
A variety of guided city tours are available in Goslar, offering a way to experience the city’s history. At the Imperial Palace, public tours of the Great Hall are available, as well as special, themed, and school-group tours. You can choose between a city-history walking tour and the different types of tours at the Imperial Palace. Check the current times for city tours and tours at the Imperial Palace in advance.
Another way to explore the city is a digital city tour featuring 360° views, interactive scenes, and audio content. It combines visual and audio elements with interactive scenes. Alongside in-person guided tours, this digital offering provides another way to engage with Goslar’s history.
Discover more destinations: Hahnenklee, Upper Harz, Braunlage, Seesen, Bad Harzburg, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Langelsheim, Sankt Andreasberg.
For the overarching travel overview: Goslar district.
_-_Zwischen_Astfeld_und_Goslar_(16).jpg){kind=link}