Limburg's Altstadt is a compact warren of cobbled lanes and Fachwerk houses tumbling down the slope from the cathedral to the river. Streets like Fischmarkt, Rütsche, Plötze and Brückengasse are lined with timbered facades from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, many of them leaning at improbable angles after seven hundred years of settling.
It is one of the best-preserved medieval town centres in Germany, partly because Limburg escaped the wholesale destruction of World War II, and partly because postwar planners had the sense to leave it alone. Wander without a map: every turn opens onto another small square, an oriel window, or a glimpse of the cathedral above the rooftops.