The Stadtplatz is the heart of Traunstein — an elongated Bavarian market square lined with painted three- and four-storey merchant houses, their facades in the creamy pastels typical of the Chiemgau region. The square escaped the 19th-century industrialisation that obliterated the centres of larger Bavarian towns, and its scale and proportions feel genuinely medieval even if the buildings are mostly Second Empire reconstructions.
The arcaded ground floors, known locally as Lauben, shelter the pavement along much of the square's length — a common feature in old Bavarian and Austrian market towns. On Wednesdays and Saturdays a farmers' market fills the square with local produce, cheese, and bread. The café terraces that spill onto the cobbles in summer are among the better places to sit and take in Bavarian small-town life unhurried.