Goslar

A thousand-year-old imperial city at the northern foot of the Harz Mountains. Its half-timbered old town, the imperial palace and the ancient Rammelsberg mine are all World Heritage Sites, and the Oker valley and mountain hiking start right outside the city.

Goslar lies in the southern part of Lower Saxony, Germany, at the northern foot of the Harz Mountains. Silver mining on the Rammelsberg rose in the Middle Ages, and in the 11th century Goslar was one of the cities where Holy Roman Emperors stayed most often. In 1992, the Rammelsberg mine and the Old Town of Goslar were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2010, the listing was extended to include the Upper Harz Water Management System. The old town has more than 1,500 half-timbered houses. Its core is the market square, with the Gothic town hall and its Hall of Homage, the Marktkirche (where you can climb the tower), a fountain with a golden eagle, and the miners' clock. South of the square are the Imperial Palace and the cathedral vestibule. To the east are the Breites Tor gate and the Zwinger tower. To the west is the Frankenberg miners' quarter. The Rammelsberg mine lies about 1 km south of the old town, and you must join a guided tour to go underground.

Outside the city, you can visit the Oker valley, the Bad Harzburg treetop trail, and the Torfhaus viewpoint to look out toward the Brocken. To the south are the Hahnenklee wooden church, the Clausthal wooden church and the Samson silver mine.

The area is good in every season. May to October is ideal for hiking, and autumn brings the best forest colors. December brings the Christmas market to the old town, and in winter, skiing and cross-country skiing are possible in the mountains.

Getting there: take a regional train from Hannover or Braunschweig for about 1 hour. The old town can be explored on foot. A stay of 1 to 2 days is recommended, or 2 to 3 nights if you add the natural sights of the Harz Mountains. Many museums are closed on Mondays.

Top sights

• Goslar Old Town – An imperial city that prospered for a thousand years from silver mining. The UNESCO-listed Old Town is full of cobbled streets, timber-fram…
• Oker Valley & Oker Dam – A granite gorge south of Goslar, with Romkerhalle Falls, strangely shaped rock cliffs, and the blue Oker Reservoir, suited to driving and h…
• Bad Harzburg Treetop Walk & Burgberg Cable Car – A treetop walkway about 1 km long winding among the crowns of the trees, with a cable car beside it that climbs straight up to Großer Burgb…
• Torfhaus – A high viewpoint at about 800 meters, facing the Brocken, with the Harz National Park visitor center and boardwalks across the high moor.
• Upper Harz Water Management System – Hundreds of ponds, ditches and tunnels built for mining between the 16th and 19th centuries. A World Heritage site best explored on foot al…
• Rammelsberg Mine – A silver, copper and lead mine worked continuously for over a thousand years. Now a World Heritage mining museum where you can ride mine tr…
• Imperial Palace of Goslar – The 11th-century imperial palace of the Salian dynasty emperors, whose Imperial Hall is covered in 19th-century murals of German history. I…
• Market Church St. Cosmas and Damian – A twin-towered Romanesque church beside the market square. Climb the north tower for views over the old town's slate roofs and the Harz Mou…
• Goslar Town Hall & Huldigungssaal – A Gothic town hall on the Market Square, housing the late-Gothic Hall of Homage with walls covered in paintings. It is one of Germany's mos…
• Goslar Cathedral Porch (Domvorhalle) – The only surviving part of Goslar's vanished imperial cathedral, now displaying an 11th-century imperial throne.
• Neuwerk Church – A 12th-century Romanesque church of a Cistercian convent, with well-preserved medieval murals in a quiet setting.
• Frankenberg Church – A Romanesque church in the miners' quarter of western Goslar, with 13th-century murals and an old street of miners' cottages around it.
• Zwinger Goslar – A massive round tower completed in 1517, with walls over 6 meters thick, housing a museum of medieval weapons and instruments of torture.
• Mönchehaus Museum Goslar – A modern art museum in a 16th-century half-timbered house, showing works by past winners of the Goslar Kaiserring prize.
• Goslar Museum – A city history museum beside the small Abzucht river, telling the story of a thousand-year-old imperial city and the rise and fall of its m…
• Breites Tor – A grand medieval city-gate fortress on the east side of the old town, the best-preserved city gate in Goslar.
• Großes Heiliges Kreuz – An almshouse founded in 1254, one of Germany's oldest, now a timber-framed hall of craft workshops.
• Siemens House – The 1693 ancestral home of the Siemens family, one of Goslar's finest Baroque half-timbered townhouses.
• Gustav Adolf Stave Church, Hahnenklee – A forest church modeled on medieval Norwegian stave churches, and the emblem of the Harz holiday village of Hahnenklee.
• Market Church of the Holy Spirit, Clausthal – Germany's largest timber-framed church, the pride of a 17th-century mining town, with a distinctive sky-blue wooden exterior.
• Samson Mine – An old silver mine in St. Andreasberg that preserves the world's oldest surviving man-engine still in working order.

Where to eat

• Brauhaus Goslar – A house brewery across from the Marktkirche, brewing the local traditional sour beer Gose and serving Harz home cooking.
• Die Worthmühle – A historic half-timbered mill serving Harz game and organic meats; in summer, the beer garden under the chestnut trees…
• Die Butterhanne – A historic tavern and café beside the market square, serving everything from breakfast to Harz game and house-made cake…
• Schwarzes Schaf – A well-reviewed Greek-Mediterranean restaurant on the north side of the Old Town; the Viennese schnitzel, rump steak, a…
• Restaurant Trueffel – One of the highest-rated restaurants in the Old Town, serving Mediterranean dishes with truffle specialties, ideal for…

Itineraries

• Harz Mountains Historic Towns & Narrow-Gauge Steam Railway – Depart from Hanover to traverse the northern foothills of the Harz, exploring half-timbered towns and riding a narrow-g…