Historic Market Square

The Historic Market Square is the centrepiece of Hildesheim's reconstructed old town, ringed by half-timbered buildings that were rebuilt in the 1980s and 1990s to exactly reproduce what stood here before the Second World War. The most dramatic is the Knochenhaueramtshaus (Butchers' Guild Hall), a seven-storey half-timbered structure built in 1529, which was considered at the time of its original construction the most beautiful half-timbered building in the world.

Across the square stands the Wedekindhaus, and the Rolandsbrunnen fountain with its late-medieval statue of Roland stands in the square itself. In summer the cafes spill out across the cobbles, and the square hosts markets throughout the year. The overall effect of the reconstruction is surprisingly successful — from the inside, the square reads as a medieval space even knowing its history.

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A story
Before 1945, Hildesheim's market square was considered one of the finest medieval townscapes in Germany, with nearly every building intact. On 22 March 1945, an Allied bombing raid destroyed 80% of the old town in a single night. The decision was made in the 1980s to reconstruct the square's most important buildings exactly as they had been — a project that drew criticism at the time but now creates a square that reads as genuinely historic from the inside.