Bamberg

Bamberg is a small city on the Regnitz with an old town listed by UNESCO since 1993, built across two arms of the river and up the hill behind them. It also has nine breweries, a number that shapes the place more than any single building, and a smoked beer that has been made in the same house since 1405.

City · Bamberg, Germany · visited 2019, 2020, 2021, 2026, 2027

1993 UNESCO listing

nine breweries in the city

1012 cathedral consecrated

about 1,400 listed monuments

77,000 inhabitants

The shape of the town

The old town is not one square but three quarters stacked together. The episcopal hill holds the cathedral, the Alte Hofhaltung and the Neue Residenz. Below it, the island town sits between the two arms of the Regnitz. East of that, the Gärtnerstadt was given over to market gardens, and vegetables are still grown inside the city limits. Walking from the station to the cathedral crosses all three in twenty minutes.

The Altes Rathaus is the hinge between hill and island. It was first mentioned in 1387 and rebuilt between 1461 and 1467, and it stands in the river on its own small island, joined to both banks by bridges. The usual story is that the bishop refused the citizens land for a town hall. The facade is painted with illusionistic architecture, repainted by Anton Greiner between 1959 and 1962 after the eighteenth-century work had worn away. Inside is the Ludwig porcelain collection.

Klein-Venedig is the row of fishermen's houses on the east bank between the Markusbrücke and the Untere Brücke, most of them built from the seventeenth century onwards, with gardens running down to the water. The view is better from the other side, from the path called Am Leinritt, where the balconies and the timber frames line up above the river. Cross back over the Untere Brücke and you are on the island again.

Nine breweries, one river

The count is nine: Ambräusianum, Fässla, Greifenklau, Kaiserdom, Keesmann, Klosterbräu, Mahrs, Schlenkerla and Spezial. That is the figure the local brewers' association uses, and it makes Bamberg one of the densest brewery towns in Germany for its size. Most stand inside the old town, within ten minutes of each other on foot, and most pour their beer in a room attached to the brewhouse.

Rauchbier is why people come, and the reason is technical. Before indirect kilning arrived in the nineteenth century, malt was dried over open fire and every beer tasted faintly of smoke. Schlenkerla still dries its malt over beechwood and pours the result from an oak cask. Spezial, a hundred metres away, makes the version Bambergers drink: the same idea with the smoke turned down. Mahr's makes none at all and is known for the aU, an unfiltered, barely carbonated lager poured in the Schwemme.

The Franconian Brewery Museum on the Michaelsberg explains the density better than any tavern. It occupies the vaults of the former Benedictine brewery, where beer was brewed from 1122, and works through malt, hops, cooperage and the village breweries that once ran into the hundreds across Upper Franconia. It opens at the start of April, so check the date before climbing the hill.

A day on foot

Bamberg Hbf sits less than two kilometres from the old town, which is a flat twenty-minute walk down Ludwigstraße, or a short bus ride to the ZOB. Cross the Obere Brücke and the Altes Rathaus is directly in front of you, with the cathedral above and to the left. Nothing in the centre needs a car, and most of it is pedestrian.

The Grüner Markt holds market stalls from Monday to Saturday, around a fountain the Bambergers call Gabelmann. This is where to buy the Bamberger Hörnla, which is two different things: a small, floury potato grown in the market gardens, and a flat, buttery pastry somewhere between a croissant and shortcrust. Bakeries sell the pastry warm in the morning, and it is the correct breakfast before a day of smoke.

Then the cathedral, the rose garden of the Neue Residenz, and down through Klein-Venedig to the river. In the evening, pick a tavern and stay in it. Most take no reservations: you look for a free seat and ask to share a table, which is normal and not an imposition. Two mugs of Rauchbier make the walk back to the station longer than it was in the morning.

What to order

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen, tapped from the oak cask at Dominikanerstraße 6. Give it three sips before deciding.
Mahr's aU Ungespundetes in the Schwemme: unfiltered, barely carbonated, the reference lager of the city.
Spezial Rauchbier Lager, the local answer to all the smoke: same idea, half the volume.
Keesmann Herren Pils when the smoke needs a counterweight: dry, bitter, and a different century altogether.

Where to eat

The Schäuferla, roast pork shoulder with a dark beer gravy and Klöße, is the dish Franconia orders on Sundays and the best thing to eat before a long afternoon.
A Bamberger Hörnla from a bakery, still warm, with coffee at eleven.
A Brotzeit in one of the taverns — bread, butter, radishes, smoked ham — which is what the beer was built for.

Notes for travellers

Bamberg is an hour from Nuremberg by train and about two and a half from Munich; the station sits on the ICE line, so a day trip works.
Cash is the safer default in the taverns. Cards are taken more often than they were, but not everywhere and not at busy times.
Klosterbräu opens Wednesday to Sunday. The brewery museum on the Michaelsberg opens in April and closes for the winter.
The old town is small: twenty minutes corner to corner. You will walk more than you expect, and most of it is cobbled.

Where it is

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49.8921° N · 10.8869° E

Closest stop on the routes: Munich by rail, 2019 · The first European loop, 2020 · Bamberg to the Allgäu, 2021 · Franconia, Bohemia and the Alps, 2026

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