Worms in 24 hours

We begin on the bank of the Rhine:
According to legend, Hagen sank the Nibelung treasure in the Rhine near Worms. There could be no better starting point for your tour of the city on foot than the Nibelung Bridge (Nibelungenbrücke) over the Rhine. Its massive gateway tower was built at the end of the 19th century in the so-called “Nibelung style” - „Nibelungenstil“ 

After walking along the Rhine promenade northwards for just a few minutes, you come to the bronze statue of Hagen, a reminder of the legendary tale centring on Worms.

A ten-minute walk towards the city centre takes you to the Nibelung Museum at the Fischerpförtchen (Fishermen’s Gateway).
This museum, in two of the towers in the city wall that was built during the Staufer period, was opened in 2001 and behind its picturesque façade it houses modern multi-media technology that will acquaint you with the Nibelung saga in a way that is both exciting and unusual. Part of the impressive city wall runs past the museum.

Now find out about the churches in Worms. There are seven in the city centre, none of them built later than 1744.

Just a few steps away from the Nibelung Museum and to the right of Petersstraße is St. Paul’s Church, a hall church with a Dominican friary dating from the 11th to the 13th century and with a high altar (Dalberghochaltar) and Gothic cloisters that are worth seeing. The oriental-looking turrets are a special feature of the region and are known as “heathen towers”.

To the left of Petersstraße and towards the market square is the Baroque Holy Trinity Church, built in 1725. From here you can already see the mighty cathedral, but it is worth making a detour to the left first.

After passing the south side of the cathedral, you reach St. Magnus’ Church. This simple single-nave church goes back to Carolingian times of the 9th century and was later extended with Romanesque and Gothic additions. It is considered to be one of the oldest Reformation churches in south-west Germany.

The former seminary Andreasstift on the other side of Weckerlingplatz today houses the City Museum, which documents the city’s history from prehistoric and early historic times up to the modern age. Especially worth seeing is the picturesque inner courtyard with the Late Romanesque cloisters.

Beyond Willy-Brand-Ring lies the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe, the "Holy Sands" ("Heiliger Sand") and dating back to the 11th century. With more than 2000 preserved grave inscriptions, it forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage "ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz – Jewish heritage for the world."

The next stop on the sightseeing walk is the splendid cathedral St. Peter. This Romanesque basilica dates from the 11th and 12th centuries and together with those in Mainz and Speyer belongs to the three famous imperial cathedrals on the Rhine. A special and more recent feature is the Baroque high altar, the work of Balthasar Neumann. The north entrance to the cathedral is the spot where the legendary dispute between the Nibelung queens Kriemhild and Brünhild is supposed to have taken place. This dispute led ultimately to the murder of Siegfried the dragon slayer and the end of the Burgundian empire.

Opposite the cathedral and surrounded by its gardens is the Heylshof Museum where you will find one of the most important art collections in Rhineland-Palatinate. The museum’s gardens (Heylshofpark) are the site of the former bishop’s palace, where the historic encounter took place between Emperor Charles V and Martin Luther at the Imperial Diet in 1521. Martin Luther refused to recant his theses, and memorial slabs in the Heylshof gardens, one of the most attractive parks in Rheinhessen, are a reminder of this event.

Within sight and diagonally opposite is the Luther Monument dating from 1868. It shows Luther surrounded by other reformers and is, together with the International Reformation Monument in Geneva (the Reformation Wall), the largest such monument worldwide.

Gardens with flowerbeds at a number of places in the city centre of Worms indicate the course of the fortifications that once existed together with a city wall. At various points, for example at the cathedral, the Nibelung Museum and the former Jews’ quarter, large sections of the wall and its gates have survived.

The grassed area in Adenauerring is in the shape of a Roman galley. You enter at the stern, where there is a small hut on the right and one on the left, and you walk to the bows with their flowerbed.

From the end of this park in Adenauerring, you can see the large Romanesque basilica St. Martin, built of red sandstone and with an attractive west portal. According to legend, St. Martin was once imprisoned here because he had converted to Christianity and refused to fight in war.
Ludwigsplatz, in front of the church, is also worth seeing. It is the site of the huge Obelisk Fountain built in memory of Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (Großherzog Ludwig von Hessen).

Continue along Kämmererstraße into the former Jewish quarter. The synagogue, mikvah, and the Jewish Museum together with the Jewish Cemetery are an impressive signal that serves as a reminder of the once influential Jewish community “Warmaisa” in medieval Worms. Together with the Jewish communities in Mainz and Speyer – called the ShUM Cities – Worms was the cradle of Jewish learning. The synagogue, women’s shul and other buildings together with the ritual bath (mikvah) and parts of what is now the Rashi House (Raschi Haus) belong to the UNESCO World Heritage ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz – Jewish heritage for the world.

After so much sightseeing, it is now time to discover Worms as a wine producing city. Continue walking north for a further 10 minutes to the Gothic Church of our Lady, which is surrounded by vineyards. This is where the world-famous “Liebfrauenmilch” (sometimes called “Liebfraumilch” in English) was and still is produced.
A walk of a few minutes eastwards from here brings you back to the Rhine, where you can sample the good wine from Worms, for example in the “Strandbar” or the “Hagenbräu”, and enjoy a wonderful evening on the bank of Europe’s biggest river.