Where to Stay in Villingen-Schwenningen, Baden-Württemberg

What is Villingen-Schwenningen known for?

The town's celebrations draw people from across Baden-Württemberg, while Schwenningen answers with ice hockey and the Wild Wings, whose following has little to do with the other half's traditions. Clocks made both halves. The Uhrenindustriemuseum Villingen-Schwenningen and the Heimat- und Uhrenmuseum Schwenningen between them set out an industry that once ran through every workshop here.

Münster Unserer Lieben Frau supplies the landmark.

What are the main landmarks in Villingen-Schwenningen?

Münster Unserer Lieben Frau stands over Villingen, with the Old town hall Villingen and the Franziskanermuseum Villingen-Schwenningen a short walk from it. Two towers give the views. The Wanne Observation Tower and the Hubenloch Observation Tower both climb above the trees, while the transmission tower Villingen-Schwenningen (Wöschhalde) makes a landmark of a different kind on the skyline.

Schwenningen keeps its clocks at the Heimat- und Uhrenmuseum Schwenningen.

What is the history of Villingen-Schwenningen?

Two towns, two histories. Villingen carries the older monuments, among them the Münster Unserer Lieben Frau, the Old town hall Villingen and the Ursulinenkloster St Ursula, which together sketch a walled town of some standing. The Benediktinerkirche and the Johanniterkirche belong to religious orders that settled inside the same walls.

Carnival came out of that town. Merchants left houses. The Wehrhaus, the Glunkenhaus and the Braumüllersches Haus survive from the streets they built, and the Berthold-Denkmal and the St Nepomuk-Statue were added to the same old centre later.

Schwenningen grew on clockmaking. Workshops turned out movements and cases in quantity, and the Heimat- und Uhrenmuseum Schwenningen keeps the tools and products of a trade that shaped this whole edge of the Black Forest. The Uhrenindustriemuseum Villingen-Schwenningen takes the factory side of the same story.

Protestant Town Church Schwenningen, the Pauluskirche Schwenningen and the Altstadtkirche mark the town's own parishes, with St Jakobus and St Franziskus among the later additions. In 1972 the two municipalities were joined into one city, an administrative decision that left both old centres standing as they were. Kaufhaus Merkur belongs to that century of building.

Where is Villingen-Schwenningen?

The Black Forest ends where this city begins. Villingen and Schwenningen sit apart from one another and were joined into a single municipality covering some 165 square kilometres, with open country still lying between the two old cores. The Schwarzwald-Baar district administers all of it.

Wooded high ground shows in the towers, since the Wanne Observation Tower and the Hubenloch Observation Tower were both put up to look out over it.

What is the climate of Villingen-Schwenningen?

The Black Forest keeps this ground high and cool. Winters run long, with snow lying on the wooded ridges above the Wanne Observation Tower well after the lower valleys of Baden-Württemberg have cleared, and summers stay short and mild by comparison. Carnival happens in the cold.

Indoor hours belong to the Franziskanermuseum Villingen-Schwenningen and the two clock museums.

How do you get to Villingen-Schwenningen?

The city has two centres, not one. Arrivals aiming for Münster Unserer Lieben Frau want Villingen, while anyone here for the Wild Wings or the Heimat- und Uhrenmuseum Schwenningen wants Schwenningen instead, and the two are not the same stop. Local roads link them.

Once inside either old centre, walking covers the churches, the museums and the Old town hall Villingen without further transport.