Historic sites

"Marburg with its twenty thousand inhabitants and the fraternity students already felt to me like a large city. In the narrow corners of the city we lived between the bourgeoisie, the craftsmen and the labourers.”
Erwin Piscator, Theatre director


Venice is known for its thousand bridges, Marburg for its stairs and alleys.
Even Jacob Grimm once said: "I believe there are more steps in the streets than in the houses.” Crooked, bumpy, angular and steep, such is Marburg’s Old Upper Town. Here the medieval times are still tangible - you can see it, you can perceive it with all five senses. That is also how Boris Pasternak felt: "If only this were a city! But in fact it is a medieval fairy tale!” Not without reason does Marburg lie today along the German Fairy Tale Road.

Let us climb to the castle. Here the view wanders across the crooked roofs of the city, the Middle Ages dissolve as the contrasting architecture comes into focus. These are no longer the days of Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli, who conducted a serious dispute during the Marburg Colloquy in 1529. Here is the blend of old and wind-bent houses of the city’s ancestors with the modern architecture of the twentieth century. Contradictory? Until just recently this was certainly true. However the Old Town and the new town were renovated under consultation with the inhabitants and according to a well-planned concept and restored with as much attention to traditional as to contemporary detail.

What can be done with dreary concrete blocks? Structural redesigning, but also artistically modified façades have helped to create a pleasant living atmosphere. Today there are new spheres open to children and new identities through artwork in the town districts. Good architecture is effective through contrasts and balance.

Marburg is one of those special places, an excellent example of the successful combination of tradition and foresight.