In the market for Christmas treat?
Nuremberg sets a festive standard, says PAUL COATES
CHRISTMAS markets – they’re everywhere. But the original, and many would say the best, is in Nuremberg.
The Bavarian city can trace its gathering of festive commerce back to 1628. Yes, there are plenty of sausages, mulled wine and wooden tree decorations among the attractions, but this is the real McCoy.
Centred on the marketplace but spread throughout a large part of the city, Nuremberg is a template to the world as all our ideal Christmases take on an ever-more Germanic feel.
With great air links to Britain and a superefficient underground system that whisks you from the airport to the city centre in just 12 minutes, more Brits will be joining the 2.2 million people who already throng the quaint cobbled streets around Christmas.
The whole Christkindlesmarkt kicks off the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent with a declaration by the Christkind, high above the market place on the balcony of The Church of Our Lady.
The tradition of Christkind – Christ Child – is a relatively new one from 1933. A young woman, who must be 1.6 metres tall, is selected from applicants to be the figurehead for the markets for two years.
It is the Christkind, rather than Father Christmas, which brings presents to children in the region.
Her role is not commercialised and she spends the festive period on more than 200 charity or community visits. She has a car and three drivers to whisk her to her appointments.
Visits to the United States follow later in the year to help promote the Christmas markets in Chicago and other places with large German communities.
Her opening of Nuremberg’s Christmas markets is huge news – live TV crews follow her every move and hope for an audience with her.
With 186 market stalls, there’s a lot to see before it draws to a close on Christmas Eve afternoon. There’s also a special children’s market with fairground rides, craft workshops and lower stalls so toddlers can see something other than a sea of legs; and a ‘sisters’ market which features stalls from Nuremberg’s many ‘twin’ cities from throughout the world, including Glasgow.
There’s a lot to see elsewhere in Nuremberg, too. One of its most famous sons is the artist Albrecht Durer whose famous depiction of hands clasped in prayer is familiar throughtout the world. His house near the city walls escaped the worst of the war’s ravages and is now a museum.
Above the old town sits the Imperial Castle. Perched on a rocky outcrop, it was one of the most important places in the Holy Roman Empire – the complex combinations of kingdoms which ruled central Europe for seven hundred years up to 1806.
It’s definitely worth the walk up from the market square for the view but the exhibition inside gives real understanding of an overlooked period of history. The emperor would travel around his empire, staying in a vast network of castles. Nuremberg often went years before the royal court descended, but everything had to be kept ship-shape for when the great occasion arose.