Where to Stay in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg

What is Tübingen known for?

The university runs through everything here, and its Museum of the University of Tübingen and Paläontologische Sammlung des Museums der Universität Tübingen open the collections to anyone who walks in. Medieval streets carry the rest of the reputation, with St George's Collegiate Church at their head and the Hölderlinturm among the buildings people come to see. Kunsthalle Tübingen shows art.

Festivals wind through the lanes at intervals through the year.

What are the main landmarks in Tübingen?

St George's Collegiate Church anchors the old streets, and the Hölderlinturm stands among the buildings visitors ask for by name. Kunsthalle Tübingen handles art. University collections open at the Museum of the University of Tübingen and the Paläontologische Sammlung des Museums der Universität Tübingen, while the Stadtmuseum Tübingen and Boxenstop Tübingen cover the town and its machines.

The Alter Botanischer Garten Tübingen is the place to sit. The Österberg-Tower and the Steinenberg Tower look over the roofs from higher ground.

What is the history of Tübingen?

The year 1078 gives the first fixed date. Fortified ground came before the university, and the Ödenburg and Burg Burgholz still mark places where defence mattered more than teaching in this stretch of Baden-Württemberg. St George's Collegiate Church rose as the town church.

Around it the medieval streets took the shape they still keep, with the Kornhaus built for grain and the Nikomedeskirche and the Jakobuskirche serving separate quarters. Lustnau Monastery belonged to the same centuries. Teaching changed the town's economy for good.

A university city keeps a different rhythm from a market town, and Tübingen filled with lecture halls, collections and the quarters that students need. The Museum of the University of Tübingen and the Paläontologische Sammlung des Museums der Universität Tübingen came out of that work, and the Alter Botanischer Garten Tübingen was laid out for the same reasons. Monuments followed the scholars.

The Silcher monument and the Uhlanddenkmal both name figures the city claims, while the Hölderlinturm attaches a name to a building of its own. Later additions run from the Wassersilo Tübingen and the Bläsibad to Boxenstop Tübingen and the Stadtmuseum Tübingen.

Where is Tübingen?

Baden-Württemberg surrounds Tübingen, which lies about 30 km from Stuttgart. Hills frame the built-up part: the Österberg carries the Österberg-Tower, the Steinenberg Tower stands on a rise of its own, and the Kalleehöhe marks another edge of the city's 108 square kilometres. Lustnau and Hagelloch belong to it.

Each keeps a church of its own, the Evangelische Kirche Lustnau and the Evangelische Kirche Hagelloch, and Lustnau Monastery stands out that way besides.

What is the climate of Tübingen?

Cold air pools in the low ground below the Österberg on winter mornings, while the slopes above hold the light a little longer into the evening in summer. Rain is spread evenly. Summer storms break over the hills and clear quickly, leaving the Alter Botanischer Garten Tübingen and the lanes under St George's Collegiate Church washed and cool.

Spring arrives slowly.

How do you get to Tübingen?

Stuttgart is the reference point, about 30 km off, and most people reach Tübingen through it rather than directly. The old town walks well. St George's Collegiate Church, the Kornhaus, the Hölderlinturm and Kunsthalle Tübingen all sit close enough that a car becomes a nuisance once it is parked.

Lustnau and Hagelloch lie further out, each with its own church, and the Ödenburg and Burg Burgholz need a proper walk.