This is the story about how my wife and I accidentally ended up lost inside the ancient, fortified city walls of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and the strange, and frankly, terrifying, things we experienced inside. Among the many photos that we took, included in this post is the photo of the orb that was floating through a passageway, and we followed, which finally led us back out of the wall. I shit you not!
It was a chilling adventure not just because it was darn-right eerie to be lost in a section of the wall, but also because we had the feeling we were being followed by someone or something. Joan, at one point, felt like she was grabbed by someone–but there was no one there!
Are The Spital Gate and the inner walls of Rothenburg haunted?
This is our story. Along with photos of a part of Rothenburg that is rarely seen or experienced, much less photographed.
A little History About Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is world-famous because it is one of the most preserved cities/towns from the middle ages, and even prior. The area has been inhabited since the 1st century AD and for a time it was the second-largest city in Germany. It was in 950AD that the city itself first started to take shape and the fortified walls surrounding it were begun as early as the 12th century.
The city is so historically significant that near the end of World War II the U.S. Assistant Secretary of War, John J. McCloy, ordered the town be taken without destroying all the historical buildings. The 12th Infantry Regiment sent word to the German soldiers who were defending Rothenburg that if they stopped defending the city it would not be further bombed and destroyed.
Thus, despite orders from Adolf Hitler himself, the German military commander, Major Thömmes, surrendered Rothenburg in order to save it. American troops then occupied the town on April 17, 1945, protecting and preserving it from further destruction.
Many know Rothenburg ob der Tauber as the Christmas city because it is also famous for the many Christmas shops you can find there, which are open year-round selling ornaments and other trinkets. It also holds one of the most famous Christmas Markets in the world annually!
Joan and I have visited the ancient city twice. This article is about our first trip. The photo above was taken while on a return visit during their annual Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in 2019.
How We Ended Up INSIDE The Wall
When we arrived at Rothenburg I parked at the first parking area I could find as I didn’t want to be endlessly driving around looking for parking, which is often the case at popular tourist attractions in Germany.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I parked far away from the entrance into the old city, which looking back should have been obvious seeing as how the parking area I chose was practically empty. The old town is surrounded by its medieval wall so you couldn’t get directly inside from just any parking area.
As we walked around, trying to find a way into the old town, we came upon a path that we thought would lead us to the entrance, but I must admit it was highly suspect because it was deserted. Mind you, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Germany, and on a beautiful day as that day in 2015, it should have been bursting with people, and later we would discover it was indeed packed with tourists, but not where we were!
We walked the path hoping it would lead to the front but instead we came upon a curious entrance into the wall.
Now, with the good fortune of obvious hindsight, looking at the picture of the lonely opening which clearly once had a door hinged upon it, it’s clear we should have considered other options. This area was so desolate that no one felt the need to close the entrance! And besides, how exactly did the door get removed anyway? Lots of questions suddenly come to mind.
Not one of my most brilliant moves, but I figured the entrance must lead to the other side of the wall and to the interior of the old town. I thought it was a logical deduction. And to my credit, a-hem, I was eventually right. I just didn’t know what we’d have to go through to get there.
Inviting, isn’t it?
Going Inside The Spital Gate
When I saw this entrance and felt the cold emanating from the darkness when we walked up to it, I knew we should turn around and get out of there. But no, as always seems to be the case with me—I had to tempt fate and find out.
The first thing we experienced when we entered the doorway was also the first indication to stay out. A cold breeze whooshed over us. Joan then asked me if I was sure this was the right way to go and my answer was simple logic, why would they leave this doorway open if it didn’t lead to the old town?
So, we took a few steps up to a platform that led into what was a wide tunnel at first, which led to awesome old battlements, they even still had an old cannon in there! My thought when I saw the cannon was that this must be a tourist attraction, but there weren’t any other people around. I mean, no one!
It was a strange thing having such a wonderous antique in a place where not many would see it.
We continued to walk through the passage looking for a way to get out. As we did, we came to several old (and I do mean, old!) entrances and exits, but none were open.
We even came to one (below) that was not merely shut and locked, but it was sealed with a wood beam bolted across it! That’s when I became concerned that we were somewhere we shouldn’t be. We found other passageways that we tried, but none of them seemed to lead out. We kept going until we realized we were completely and utterly lost.
Something Grabbed Her!
I can’t tell you how worrisome it was to realize we didn’t know how to get out or even how to go back to where we had come in. Joan went so far as to try to open one of the locked barn-style doors and when she did, she screamed and ran back to me. She said something had grabbed her arm. I thought maybe her sweater had snagged on something, but she assures me it felt like someone had grabbed her, and when she looked for who it was, no one was there.
I felt so bad, she was literally shaking from the experience. Since I had been taking photos continuously, I have a picture of the moment she hurried back up from the door. You can see her pointing back while she was frantically telling me what just happened.
Follow The Orb
The only option we had was to continue walking the passageways believing that somewhere there must be a way out, the wall could not go on forever (or could it?). It was even freakier that some sections were pretty dark as there wasn’t much light coming in from cracks and weapons portals, but we had to continue.
Somewhere along the way, Joan commented on strange little lights that moved oddly about. At first, I thought it was probably just thin beams of light coming in through the cracks, but these lights were too dull and seemed to fade in and out. I started snapping photos again to see if I could document them.
Now, let me be clear, I don’t know what it was, and it’s easy to consider the first obvious explanations like dust, or a lens flare, or beams of light, or hell, even a dandelion, but considering we were following these things and they seemed to emit their own dull light in fairly dark passageways we didn’t know what they were. Dust on the other hand was also present, but was obvious. This was not dust.
This experience happened long before I even considered creating this blog to share such photos with you, at the time I was thinking they were a strange type of firefly, but clearly that’s not the case. The photo shows that it is an orb but more than that I can’t say. There were more and they moved about so weirdly, but with direction.
The most interesting thing about this orb is that it led us into a passageway that led to an exit!
I have to wonder if maybe some kind, gentle spirit inside the wall helped us find the way out.
We came to some very steep stairs that were covered with spider webs that led down and eventually out of the wall, finally! I tell you though, the stairs themselves seemed like they could fit perfectly into any haunted house movie.
I mean, What The Heck!? Where were we??
Once we were finally out we realized we had ended up in a very old part of the town that had no one about anywhere in sight! We were clearly not in Kansas anymore!
We ended up walking a long trek around to find our way, and as we walked, we came to the door that was blocked from the inside with a wood beam, and not only was it blocked from the inside there was a lock on the outside!! Okay, so seriously, what gives with locking these entrances if there are open entrances with no doors?
…what gives with locking these entrances if there are open entrances with no doors?
I’d hate to be someone, especially a child, who gets in by accident at night, who knows what could be lurking in there!
That was our trip inside a seemingly forgotten part of the fortified ancient wall to one of the most well-preserved medieval cities in Europe.
It was an adventure I will never forget.
The photos I’ve posted here are of passageways most visitors will never see, and even for those who go to Rothenburg in search of the way into them, they might not even find exactly where we were.
A year later, I returned to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with Erik Jessie and we filmed inside of the wall and used a Spirit Board to communicate with something in there! It will be uploaded and posted soon. We also walked through the town and filmed several famous landmarks for good measure. It’s a beautiful town.
I hope you enjoyed this post! If you’d like to comment or discuss, let’s do that on Facebook here.
