What the pope won't see, but visitors can - Erfurt's many attractions

By Andreas Heimann Aug 30, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Erfurt, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI once again won't have too much time. When he visits Germany on September 22-25, his appointment calendar will be brimming over.

But he will be spending almost two days in the eastern state of Thuringia, staying the night in the state capital of Erfurt and, at the St. Mary's Cathedral square, celebrating an open-air mass on September 24.

He won't otherwise be seeing much of Erfurt, which is really a shame, because the city has a great deal to offer. With only about 200,000 residents, Erfurt is one of the smallest, but also one of the most beautiful, of Germany's state capitals.

Mornings, at around 8 am, things are quiet in the old city centre, where patrician houses are lined up along the Fischmarkt square. Along the main city square, the Anger, the Erfurters are already on the move, and some are crossing the Cathedral square. But there's no sense of urgency.

Two hours later there's somewhat more going on, as shoppers are now strolling past the market booths.

'Feldgieker' and 'Eichsfelder Stracke' - two sausage specialties from northern Thuringia - are found here. At another booth, smoke is rising - and the pungent mouth-watering smell of Thuringia bratwursts sizzling over a fire.

Erfurt's Cathedral square seems so supra-dimensional that one thinks maybe the city planners' pencils slipped.

And the Cathedral steps are astonishingly broad. Each summer the site is the venue of the DomStufen Festspiel (cathedral steps festival). This year, Mozart's 'Magic Flute' was on the programme.

Right after his scheduled arrival in Erfurt on September 23, the pope will be heading to the Cathedral. The next day there will be the Eucharist mass celebrated on the square - but tickets have long ago been snapped up.

As an alternative, there will be a public viewing with huge TV screens in the Erfurt stadium, Thueringen Tourism official Mandy Neumann says.

The Cathedral also looks huge on the inside. Some of the windows are 18 metres tall and there is a super-sized painting of St. Christopher. An unusual feature is the Wolfram candleholder from 1160, portraying a human form whose two upraised arms hold two candles, Cathedral guide Matthias Schmitt explains.

At half past two, tour guide Gudrun Ahr pauses in front of the Collegium Maius, one of the oldest buildings in the city.

'It was formerly the main building of the university, founded in 1392 and thereby one of the oldest ones anywhere in the German-speaking region,' she explains. The university however was shut down by the Prussians in 1816 and was only re-established in 1994.

'(Martin) Luther studied law in Erfurt,' Ahr notes, while leading the group onwards, towards the Augustinian monastery where Luther spent some time as a monk.

Back then, Erfurt had three orders, with Luther preferring the Augustinians before the other two, the Dominicans and Franciscans. This was because of their strict adherence to the rules and for their 'studium fundamentale' - a curriculum where he could study Hebrew and Greek.

It was in Erfurt that Luther - who would lead the Protestant movement against the Catholic Church - was ordained as a priest. It was in the Augustinian monastery that he celebrated his first mass as a priest.

On his upcoming visit, Pope Benedict will be visiting the site, now a Protestant monastery, to hold an ecumenical church service.

But the pope won't have any time to take a stroll across the Kraemerbruecke bridge, where Erfurt shows off its most attractive side. In the 14th century, the bridge was built of stone, with 32 small houses erected atop it. There is a resemblance to the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence.