Rottweil packs a lot into a small old town. The Hauptstrasse runs through the centre, lined with painted Renaissance and baroque oriel windows and the brightly coloured Erkers (corner bay windows) that make the place look like a child's storybook. Two medieval gate towers — the Schwarzes Tor and the Hochbrücktor — still mark the edges of the old town.
The Heilig-Kreuz-Münster, the parish church, holds excellent late-medieval altarpieces and a fine fifteenth-century Crucifixion attributed to the Master of Hakendover. The Dominikanermuseum on the eastern edge of the centre is the best museum in town, with the Roman mosaic of Orpheus from the nearby Roman bath, and a strong collection of medieval Swabian wood sculpture from southwestern Germany.
Outside the centre, the thyssenkrupp test tower rises 246 metres above the plateau — a slender white cylinder that has become the new landmark of the town. Visitors can ride up to Germany's highest viewing platform at 232 metres. For something completely different, time a visit for the Fasnet carnival in February, when masked Narren parade through the old town in centuries-old wooden masks.