Wertheim, Romantic Road

On the confluence of the rivers Main and Tauber lies the town of Wertheim. Founded between the 7th and 8th centuries, Wertheim has a population of 23,000 residents. The town’s landmark is Wertheim Castle and its medieval town centre.

Wertheim Castle sits on the crest of a hill above the valleys of the Main and Tauber rivers.  Built in the 12th century for the von Staufen family and expanded several times over the next 500 years, the castle is one of the largest stone castles in southern Germany. Damaged extensively in the 1600s during the Thirty Years' War (a conflict mainly in Germany and Central Europe), the castle fell into further ruin over the centuries, with walls and towers collapsing as late as the 1950s. The town took ownership of the castle in 1995, and its grounds are now used for various events and concerts.

Adjacent to the River Tauber is the 12th-century Spitzer Turm (Pointed Tower), a round tower originally built as a watchtower. The bottom half of the tower is built out of house stones, whilst the top half is octagonal in shape, plastered with sandstone cornice and a pointed roof. It stands 120ft (36.5m) high and is only accessible via a ladder as the entrance is 32ft (10m) off the ground. At some point, it also served as a prison for drunkards and “quarrelsome women”.

In a half-timbered building from 1577, the Glasmuseum (Glass Museum) exhibits glassworks from antiquity to the present. Founded in 1976, the museum showcases “3500 years of glass production and glass application”, including everything from drinking glasses to lab glasses. Ancient glass items from Egypt, the Roman Empire, and the Orient are displayed alongside replicas of historical glasses from the Middle Ages. A paperweight collection of 800 items presents its history from 1840 to today, and a collection of 3000 oriental, Roman and Venetian glass beads from 1000BC to the Middle Ages was bequeathed to the museum by Thea E. Haevernick, an archaeologist primarily focused on prehistoric glass finds.