me in the Erfurter Fischmarkt

The press-officer for the city of Erfurt took this photo of me at the Fischmarkt during my first visit, in the Summer of 1998, wearing my Springbok rugby jersey. Behind me to the left stands the Haus zum Breiten Herd, a most interesting building. It houses Erfurt's Handwerkskammer, an educational centre for artisans—masons, metal-workers, glaziers, and so on.

No idea when it was built, perhaps in the early 1400s. The stair-step gable was added around 1570. The press-officer took me inside it to show me the famed Wendeltreppe, added in the seventeenth-century, a winding staircase that reaches to the top floor. My reader must admit, this thing is a jewel. The stained-glass must be modern, though, perhaps post-War.

Die Wendeltreppe from inside

from outside