Sights 

Behind a nondescript door in the town wall at the end of the Glockengiesser Straße lies the Jewish cemetery. With tombstones dating back to the early 17th century it documents the continuity of Jewish life in our town, which came to an end with the expulsion and extermination under the Nazis. Today the remaining 145 gravestones are outstanding documents of Jewish burial custom, the cemetery itself is an important monument of history which has been forgotten and suppressed to a great extent. Note: Head covering for male visitors is required. (a hat or yarmulke)

This historic citizen farmer’s house (built around 1500) at Frankenberger Straße 11 has an even older heart: the two-storey cellar, for storing Gose beer, stems from a previous Romanesque stone building. The hall has a rounded arch entryway and Gothic windows with stone window seats. The historic complex belongs to the local artist Hans-Joachim Röver and is used for exhibits, chamber music concerts and recitation evenings.

In 1254 the Great Holy Cross was founded as an almshouse for the town’s needy. Here the poor, the ill and orphans, as well as pilgrims and other travellers, could receive food and shelter. Today, unique in Germany, it still serves its original purpose - 750 years after its founding it provides modern accommodations for the elderly in an adjoining wing. The small individual rooms built into the main hall of the 13th century building in the Baroque period are now used as studios and shops for artisans, making the important national monument a lively centre of culture.

In just 46 square metres of floor space the miners’ everyday life of four centuries can be experienced. This little half- timbered house was built around 1600 and since then has been home to miners, slate quarrymen and craftsmen and their families. Even a night watchman and a town council clerk are listed as former owners.

The Frankenberger Plane is one of Goslar’s particularly beautiful squares. The attractive location of the Small Holly Cross hospital and the constructional consonance of the church and the Frankenberg Convent form a particularly attractive composition, expressing a peacefulness and seclusion which distinguish it from the other squares in Goslar.

Along the Gose and Abzucht streams there are more than 40 locations where over the last 1000 years water was used to power mills. Today only one mill at the “Klapperhagen” still creaks away on the rippling waterway. It was built in the early 16th century and served later as both a cement- and a leather tanning mill. Inside many parts of the historic back-shot water wheel technology and the mechanism for grinding oak bark to obtain tannic acid for tanning can still be seen. Interior viewing is made possible by appointment at the Goslar Museum next door.

The “Brusttuch” (Scarf House), built in 1521, is one of the most beautiful patrician houses in Goslar. Hardly any right angle can be found in this trapezoid-formed house. Consequently, the carpenter had to mobilize all his craftsmanship for the timber framework and the roof construction. A wood carver gave his fancy full play when decorating the upper storey timber framework. A colourful conglomerate of figures from antique mythology and animals and figures with symbolism difficult to interpret today covers the surface.

Like the Great Holy Cross and the St. Anne’s Foundation, the Small Holy Cross today no longer functions as a home for the elderly. Today it is used by the Frankenberg parish as a church community building; the small rooms are used for youth groups, hobby activities and mothers with children, while the hall serves as a meeting place after church on Sunday, and for lectures and concerts. A group within the church community is responsible for meeting the maintenance costs. This usage of a publicly-owned building by the church is in harmony with the founding fathers’ concept.

Visible from afar, the fortified defences of a medieval town - the earth dams and moats, the walls, towers and wards - were proof of the town’s ability to defend itself. The gates in the walls were weak points requiring special protection. In the 16th century Goslar’s defences were reinforced one last time, the gates themselves becoming veritable fortresses in themselves.

At the upper right of the east facade of the Backers’ Guildhall the coat of arms of the Guild can be seen: the uncrowned Goslar eagle bearing a gingerbread upon its heart and three backer’s products below it. A beautiful half-timbered dormer in the upper storey, which was added to the stone ground floor in 1557, bears witness of the continuous growth and flourishing of the bourgeois.

Show the Bakers’ Guildehall on the city map...

Located not far from the Market Square, the Schuhhof is probably Goslar’s older Market Square. It is framed by majestic half-timbered houses and the arcades of the Shoe Makers’ Guildhall.

A careful look at the buildings on the west side reveals that the present buildings emerged from the first small stalls of individual shoemakers.

Show the Schuhhof on the city map...

Four times a day all eyes and cameras focus on the gable of the former city treasury on the east side of the Market Square. Three little doors open up and the emerging figures tell the story of Rammelsberg mining from the legendary discovery of ore by the Knight Ramm up to modern times. n 1968 the carillon bells and figures were donated by the Preussag Company on the occasion of the 1000 th anniversary of the beginning of Rammelsberg mining. Additionally, at 8:30 a.m. a morning song and at 6:30 p.m. an evening song are played (without figures).

Beyond the Market Square with the Town Hall the two different spires of the Market Church  soar upwards. The great importance of the market fountain is obvious: it marks the centre of the Market Square and also the middle point of the town and is topped with Goslar’s symbol, the eagle, as well.

The main building of the Town Hall had not long been completed when the cloth merchants built their guildhall in its immediate proximity in 1494. These were the wealthiest and most influential citizens of the town who demonstrated their influence with this building-- very nearly outshining the Town Hall. Over the centuries the façade was often altered and the mixture of styles gives it a certain charm today: the Baroque figures stand happily inside their Gothic-decorated niches.

Practically simultaneously with the construction of the Imperial Palace, the Collegiate Church of St. Simon and Judas was built at its foot, a building which would, over the next decades, be a model for numerous Romanesque churches both near and far. It was immensely influential in church politics: many canons attained the highest church offices, becoming bishops or advisors to the royal court.

The ancestral home of the industrialist family Siemens in the Schreiberstrasse, built in 1693, is one of the largest and best preserved patrician mansions in Goslar. It is an impressive example of the typical multifunctional character of a house of the time: it was not only a residence but also the family’s place of business. A loaded wagon could drive into the entry hall and pass into the courtyard beyond, while numerous upper storey floors and two wings at the back provided abundant storage. The beer brewing room is a monument of Goslar’s commercial history: in the 17th century more than 380 properties had the right to brew beer.