Schweinfurt

Schweinfurt is a city and district in Lower Franconia on the Main river. It is a university town, a wine town and promotes itself as a city of art.

Understand

Schweinfurt, whose name literally means "swine ford", has a long history. It was first mentioned in a document dating from 720. It was an important place to cross the River Main in a time when there were not yet many bridges in Germany. In 941 Schweinfurt became the capital of a Franconian margraviate. During the High Middle Ages, it became an Imperial City (i.e. the citizenry was directly subject to the Emperor and enjoyed many liberties and privileges).

In 1542, it was one of the first cities in Southern Germany to adopt Protestantism. During the Counter-Reformation, many Protestants from neighbouring territories fled to Schweinfurt where they could freely profess their faith. Nowadays however, due to more recent immigration from the surrounding Catholic areas and secularisation, 42% of the population are Catholic, while only 29% remain Protestant. During the Early Modern Age, Schweinfurt was a centre of education, the German National Academy of Sciences was founded here in 1652.

Industrial development started in 1777 when a white lead mill was founded. Later Schweinfurt became a site of paint, chemical, metal and engines industry (e.g. Sachs). In 1802, the free city of Schweinfurt was annexed into the Kingdom of Bavaria. During the Second World War, Schweinfurt produced most of Nazi Germany's ball bearings. As a crucial armament industry site, it was strategically bombed by the Allies. After the end of the war, Schweinfurt hosted a major U.S. Army Garrison until 2014. The city has some 55,000 inhabitants (2023) with more than 100,000 people living in its agglomeration. Schweinfurt is one of the most economically powerful cities in Germany.

Tourist information

• Schweinfurt Tourism website

Get in

The nearest airports are Frankfurt (FRA ^IATA; 170 km away, two hours by train), Nuremberg (NUE ^IATA, 100 km, 1½ hours) and Erfurt (ERF ^IATA; 150 km, 2½ hours).

Schweinfurt is not served by intercity trains. Arriving by ICE highspeed train from Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich, you will have to transfer either in Würzburg or Bamberg, from where regional trains run twice an hour, taking 20–30 minutes from Würzburg or 30–40 minutes from Bamberg.

Schweinfurt is located on the intersection of Autobahns A 70 from Bamberg/Bayreuth/Nuremberg and A 71 from Erfurt, and only a few kilometres off the north-south route A 7 from Hanover/Kassel or Würzburg/Ulm.

See

• 1 Museum Georg Schäfer, Brückenstraße 20. An extraordinary museum building by the Berlin architect Volker Staab, which opened in 2000. 19th-century paintings by artists from German-speaking countries.The museum is home to the most important private collection of 19th century German-speaking art and the world's largest Carl Spitzweg collection, with 160 paintings and 110 drawings. (updated Mar 2017)
• 2 City wall (Stadtmauer). It is still preserved with three towers on the eastern ramparts on the Lower and Upper Wall. At the location shown in the right picture, in the corner between Mariental and Maintal, the former city wall was also the surrounding wall of the Henneberg imperial castle, which is still easy to imagine today. The city wall is also preserved on the western ramparts near the city theater and art gallery, among other places. 
• 3 Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus), Market 1. The town hall is considered a masterpiece of secular German buildings of the early Renaissance and is impressive due to its proportions. It was built between 1569 and 1572 by the Halle architect Nikolaus Hofmann in a transitional style from the late Gothic to the early Renaissance. The coats of arms of Emperor Maximilian II and the seven electors are on the oriel tower. The vaults on the ground floor house the former market hall, which now hosts temporary exhibitions, and the tourist information office. The left oriel tower is the old town pharmacy. Also worth seeing is the town hall hall, which is only accessible during concerts and events. The town hall remained intact during the Second World War until a major fire, probably caused by welding work, almost destroyed the town hall on the evening of April 20, 1959. The roof structure was ablaze and the eastern gable wall bent inwards and threatened to collapse into the town hall. However, the fire brigade got the fire under control and ultimately it remained only a roof fire.  
• 4 Schrotturm, Petersgasse 3. It is the landmark of the Southern Old Town district, the middle of the three Main districts, between Zurich, which lies upstream of the Main , and Fischerrain ; built in 1611 as the stair tower of a Renaissance house (in the picture, back right), whose cellar vaults house small art. The tower was raised by four floors in the 19th century to produce shotgun pellets, with a beautiful view, but is not open to the public. 
• 5 Museum Altes Gymnasium, Martin-Luther-Platz 12. Tu-F 14:00-17:00, Sa Su 10:00-13:00 and 14:00-17:00. Collection on the city's history. Renaissance building from 1582 and former Latin school. 

Do

• Schweinfurt Wine Festival at the Peterstirn, An der Peterstirn, is one of the most beautiful wine festivals in Franconia. At the Dahms winery, you can sit either in the castle courtyard or in the middle of the vineyard, where the view sweeps over the Schweinfurt Mainbogen far below with its shipping traffic and over the wide Franconian plateau to the Steigerwald. If the visibility is good, you can see all three Franconian administrative districts. In the evening, the two castles Peterstirn and Mainberg, which are located in the vineyards, are illuminated. The vineyard was spared from land consolidation and retained its historical character.
  • Schweinfurt Spring Wine Festival, mid-May
  • Schweinfurt Summer Wine Festival, mid-July
• Schweinfurt Wine Festival on the market square in early August.

• 1 Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt), Marktplatz (market square). From the first weekend of Advent until December 23rd, daily until 20:00. The Christmas market does not attract any attention from outside the region, which is to its advantage. The lack of tourist hustle and bustle and the exclusive Christmas, arts and crafts offerings, without kitsch and the usual market goods, give the Christmas market a special, authentic atmosphere and make it an insider tip. 

Sleep

• 1 Alte Reichsbank, Neutorstr. 4, ☏ +49 9721 54167-0. 
• Hotel Ross, Hohe Brückengasse 4, ☏ +49 9721 20010. 

Go next

• Würzburg
• Bamberg
• Bad Kissingen