The best city hikes and walks around Landkreis Neustadt an der Waldnaab

Once part of the medieval city wall around 1350, it was demolished and rebuilt in 1911 in a simplified form (and wider for traffic). Today, it provides access to the market. The former arched bridge over the moat is hidden beneath the houses to the left and right.

Sightseeing Weiden

Until 1938, the Holy Spirit Church and its adjoining cemetery stood at the current location of the Sparkasse Oberpfalz Nord headquarters. A bronze relief on the Sparkasse facade and several preserved old gravestones in a colonnade commemorate the church, first mentioned in 1474 and used as a cemetery church from 1533 onward.

The modern Macerata Fountain, which dominates Macerata Square, is dedicated to Weiden's Italian twin city, Macerata. It is the most central square in the city center. Max-Reger-Straße, Ringstraße, Weißenburger Straße, Wörthstraße, and Leibnizstraße meet here. The Nordoberpfalz Center, Weiden's largest shopping center, borders the square. Almost the entire Macerata Square is part of the pedestrian zone.

The fortifications of the city were probably begun in 1347 at the behest of Emperor Charles IV and expanded until the beginning of the 16th century. Weiden's first wall, built when the founding city had already existed for fifty years, was initially 1.80 meters wide and had no projections. It had four gates. Presumably prompted by the Hussite Wars in nearby Bohemia beginning in 1419, these fortifications were reinforced: A moat wall barely half as high was added to the high main wall with its walkway, to which battery and shell towers were attached. Large defensive towers were built at the four corners of the city. Large sections of the medieval city wall, some of them still with the covered battlements, have been preserved in the alleys "Hinterm Zwinger" and "Hinterm Wall."

This bronze sculpture by Weiden sculptor Günter Mauermann from the 1980s commemorates the Bohemian musicians who traveled through Bohemia and Upper Palatinate before the First World War, and their signature instrument, the bagpipe. On the bagpiper's right shoulder sits the Hoimann, a figure from Upper Palatinate legend.

With the construction of the medieval city wall around 1350 at the behest of the German Emperor Charles VI, the city gates were also built. The Upper Gate in the western part of the old town even temporarily had a drawbridge over the moat that had been created at that time, which connected it to the Waldnaab River. The gate was reinforced and rebuilt several times, and finally, in 1911, due to the widening of the street, it was completely demolished and rebuilt in a simplified form. It has remained in this form to this day.

The former Weiden Castle, built from 1404 onward, was the administrative seat of the Parkstein-Weiden Joint Office from 1421, and also the residence of Count Palatine Friedrich von Parkstein from 1585 to 1593. The house, located directly on the former city wall, is connected to the Upper Gate.