5 Best Sights in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, Germany

A medieval slum developed behind the church of St Andreas and extended toward the river. There are none of the patrician homes of Erfurt’s wealthy burghers. Instead, this working-class neighborhood once housed handworkers and other laborers in small narrow houses built on small alleys. All through the Old City look for decorative house names like Haus zum kleinen Apfel (House at the Small Apple). Before street names and house numbers, buildings were given names that served as a postal address; there are signs like these on many of Erfurt’s buildings.

Quedlinburg’s skyline is dominated by the Schlossberg. The original town that became Quedlinburg forms the base of the hill. The half-timber houses in this are much smaller than those in the Old Town as they housed handworkers and artisans that supported the Abbey. The hill is ringed by the Wassertorstrasse and a small footpath that make exploring this area picturesque and easy. Finkenherd Square hosts a large collection of medieval half-timber houses. The house at Finkenherd #1 is where, in 919, Heinrich I learned that he would be king. On the way up to the castle, stop at Vincent's Käsekuchenbäckerei for the best cheesecake in Quedlinburg.

The area around the Krämerbrücke, crisscrossed with old streets lined with picturesque, often crumbling, homes and shops, is known as Little Venice because of the small streams and recurrent flooding it endures.

Erfurt's main transportation hub and pedestrian zone, the Anger developed as a result of urban expansion due to the growth of the railroad in Thuringia in the early 19th century. With some exceptions, the houses are all architecturally historicized, making them look much older than they really are. The Hauptpostgebäude was erected in 1892 in a mock Gothic style.

In the old city to the west of the Kramerbrücke are two important streets. The Waagegasse is a narrow street, with no outlets, that forced traders along the Via Regia into the city towards the scales that would weigh their goods. Erfurt collected taxes on these goods, and merchants were required to store their wares in Erfurt for two days in a Speicherhaus. There are several of these warehouses at the end of the alleyway.

The Michaelisstraße today, is a street with pubs and restaurants that at least partially remains true to its original purpose. Erfurt owes a great deal of its wealth to the trade in Woad (Waidpflanze), a cabbage-like plant used to create a spectacular blue pigment. Since blue-colored cloth was a symbol of wealth and the only other source of blue dye was indigo from the Ottoman empire, "Erfurt Blue" was in high demand all over Europe. In the many courtyards along the street, A Waidknecht (a Woad-hand) made the valuable dye by fermenting the dried leaves of the plant in urine. Erfurt's wealthy burghers provided a plentiful source of the essential liquid by establishing a number of breweries near the factories. You can still buy the dye and colored cloth at the Erfurt Blau shop ( Kramerbrücke 2  www.erfurterblau.de).