Nuremberg’s Hauptmarkt (Main Market Square) was founded in 1349 and today hosts various events in the city’s long festival calendar. None are more famous or more enchanting than the annual Christmas market in the weeks of advent. We were there at the start of Carnival and the market encompassed the usual selection of food stalls, rides for small children, and cheap, mostly hand made souvenirs and utensils.

In the merriment it is easy to forget how the market came into being. In the 1340s Emperor Karl IV was in financial trouble and was hoping for funding from Nuremberg. The businessmen of the city was hoping to get rid of debt owned to Jewish moneylenders and sounded the Emperor out on the possibility of ridding the city of Jews and building a market where the ghetto was located. The Emperor who constitutionally had to protect the Jews couldn’t be part to such proposition but made it known that he would not oppose such a move. In previous years pogroms occurred in France and Switzerland and in December 1349 the Jews of Nuremberg were similarly blamed for the nearing plague and 600 were killed in Nuremberg. Most died in their houses, which were set to fire after the doors were blocked from the outside. The city got its market and Karl IV erected the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) to try and atone for his sins.

The west façade of this church and some sidewalls were all that were not destroyed in the Second World War. A central part of this façade is the carillon known as Männleinlaufen--it plays at noon when the small figures of the seven Prince Electors pay homage to Emperor Karl IV by walking around him three times. This simple act recalls the Golden Bull of 1356. This is considered the most important constitutional document of the Holy Roman Empire (of German states) as it laid down the seven electors who could elect the German king. It had several other clauses but the one stressed locally was that the first diet of each new emperor must be held in Nuremberg.

At the far end of the Market Square is the Schöner Brunnen (literally Beautiful Fountain). It resembles a gothic church spire and dates from the fourteenth century. The wrought iron work around the fountain dates from 1587. Apart from its artistic beauty it also has one of the symbols of Nuremberg--the apprentice ring. This ring is a moveable large gold colored ring seemingly without seam. According to legend an apprentice worked it into the fence without his masters approval but all were amazed that it could be done without a seam. Locals turn the ring once for good luck--most tourists do it three times just to be sure!