Hauptmarkt

This bustling square in the heart of the Altstadt is the site of daily markets as well as the famous Christkindlesmarkt. At the eastern end is the ornate Gothic Pfarrkirche Unsere Liebe Frau (1350-58), also known as simply the Frauenkirche. The work of Prague cathedral builder Peter Parler, it's the oldest Gothic hall church in Bavaria and stands on the ground of Nuremberg's first synagogue.

The western façade is beautifully ornamented and is where, every day at noon, crowds crane their necks to witness a spectacle called Männleinlaufen. It features seven figures, representing electoral princes, parading clockwise three times around Emperor Karl IV to chimed accompaniment. The scene commemorates the passage of the Golden Bull in 1356. Rising from the square like a Gothic spire, the gargoyle-adorned, 19m-tall Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful Fountain) is a gilded replica of the 14th-century original, though it no longer spouts water. Look for the seamless golden ring in the ornate wrought-iron gate on the southwestern side. Local superstition has it that if you turn it three times, your wish will come true. (Be careful not to confuse it with the gold ring on the opposite side of the gate, which, it's claimed, will make you conceive - if you're female, of course.)