A soaring Gothic hall church of three pointed spires standing shoulder to shoulder with the cathedral on Erfurt's Domberg. Inside waits one of the tallest baptismal canopies in Germany, a slender tower of carved stone that almost brushes the vault.

A soaring Gothic cathedral crowning Erfurt's hilltop, reached by a grand open staircase and famed for the largest medieval bell still ringing anywhere in the world.

The ceremonial heart of Erfurt's old town, a compact square ringed by richly ornamented Renaissance merchant houses. At its centre a helmeted Roman warrior in stone has stood guard since 1591, watched over by the soaring neo-Gothic town hall.

Hidden in a quiet courtyard off the Fischmarkt, this plain stone building is one of the oldest synagogues in Europe, with timbers dated to 1094. Forgotten for centuries and therefore preserved, it now guards the dazzling medieval Erfurt Treasure.

A medieval stone bridge lined end to end with inhabited half-timbered houses, where the river vanishes beneath a cobbled shopping lane. It is the longest continuously inhabited bridge in Europe.

A snug triangular square at the eastern foot of the Krämerbrücke, ringed by half-timbered facades and warmed by cafe tables. Its little bronze fountain and the leaning church tower give it the feel of an outdoor living room.

A slender Gothic hall church at the fork of two medieval streets, its walls deliberately skewed to fit the plot, crowned by the tallest tower in Erfurt's old town and home since 2007 to Germany's first Catholic columbarium.

A vast, austere Gothic hall without a single external buttress, the working home of the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart and once a prisoner-of-war camp, its postwar windows pieced together from salvaged glass shards.

Old town