About this place
Spanning the little River Gera in the heart of Erfurt's old town, the Krämerbrücke is so densely built over that most visitors never realise they are standing on a bridge at all. Its six sandstone arches, completed in 1325, carry a narrow cobbled lane flanked by tall timber-framed houses whose shops sell woad-dyed fabrics, chocolate, ceramics and antiquarian books. A market crossing was first recorded here in 1156 as the pons rerum venalium, and after a run of fires destroyed successive wooden bridges, the stone structure that survives today was raised in the early fourteenth century. Once guarded at each end by a church, it remains a living street where roughly eighty people still make their homes above the water, part of the great medieval Via Regia trade road that once linked Spain with Russia.
Key facts
- 62 houses — Originally 62 narrow half-timbered houses lined the bridge, later merged into around 32
- 1325 year — The stone bridge was completed after repeated fires destroyed the earlier wooden crossings
- 125 metres — Its length makes it the longest continuously inhabited bridge in Europe
📍 Krämerbrücke 28, 99084, Erfurt