Dinkelsbühl

Dinkelsbühl is a town of 12,000 people (2023) in Mittelfranken. It has escaped both wars and overzealous city planners with its old town largely intact. It has therefore come to be considered a stop along the Romantic Road.

For those whose interest in medieval architecture is more limited, Dinkelsbühl is also well known as the site of Summerbreeze Open Air, a yearly Heavy Metal Festival.

Understand

It is a former Reichsstadt (nominally subject to the Emperor but to no other ruler) and grew slowly since the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

Dinkelsbühl was de facto self-governing until 1802 when it was annexed by Bavaria in the course of the Napoleonic Wars. Uniquely during the era of cuius regio eius religio (the ruler would decide the faith of the subjects), Dinkelsbühl had not only equal rights for Lutherans and Catholics but a city government composed of equal numbers of both. Its current touristic importance is largely due to the well preserved old town, which was "discovered" by American soldiers stationed in the American Zone of Occupation after World War II who would link several medieval and "romantic" stops to the Romantic Road before tourist marketing agencies got wind of it and started marketing it themselves. Compared to nearby Rothenburg ob der Tauber Dinkelsbühl is less well known and therefore less crowded with tourists.

Tourist information

• Dinkelsbühl tourist information web page

Get in

By train

The train line through Dinkelsbühl while still extant has been shut down for regular service and is only sporadically served by a heritage railway from Nördlingen among other routes.

By plane

The nearest airport with scheduled flights is in Nuremberg (NUE ^IATA)

• 1 Flugplatz Dinkelsbühl-Sinbronn. A small general aviation airfield.  

See

• 1 St. George. A church. (updated Jul 2018)
• 2 Former City Hall. Today housing a museum. (updated Jul 2018)
• 3 Deutsches Haus. A timber-framed house.  
• 4 Stadtmühle. A mill.  

• 5 Rothenburger Tor. Citygate  
• 6 Segringer Tor. Citygate  
• 7 Nördlinger Tor. Citygate  
• 8 Wörnitztor. Citygate  

Do

• 1 Summer Breeze Open Air. A heavy metal festival held here every year since 2006.  
• The last week in October is Fischerntewoche (fish harvest week)

Eat

• 1 Wilder Mann, Wörnitzstraße 1, 91550 Dinkelsbühl, ☏ +49 9851 552525. (updated Jan 2019)
• 2 Weib's Brauhaus, Untere Schmiedgasse 13, 91550 Dinkelsbühl,, ☏ +49 9851 579490. Original Swabian dishes served with their own beers. (updated Jan 2019)

Sleep

• 1 DCC Camping Park "Romantic Road" (DCC Campingpark "Romantische Straße"), Kobeltsmühle 6, ☏ +49 9851 7817. (updated Jan 2019)

Go next

• Rothenburg ob der Tauber
• Bopfingen

Routes through Dinkelsbühl

Würzburg ← Rothenburg ob der Tauber ←

Würzburg  Füssen

→ Nördlingen → Augsburg