Rottweil - town in the district of Rottweil, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Rottweil is a city between Black Forest (Schwarzwald) and Swabian Jura (Schwäbische Alb).

Understand

Rottweil is the oldest city in Baden-Württemberg being founded as Arae Flaviae in 73 CE and named after the then ruling dynasty of the Roman Empire. However, the Roman settlement was never all that big and only in 1950 did archeologists positively identify Arae Flaviae, which had been mentioned in various sources, including the Tabula Peutingeriana, with modern Rottweil. The town lends its name to the (nowadays far more famous) dog breed, believed to descend from Roman drover dogs.

Get in

By train

• Rottweil station, 48.164819°, 8.641797°. Deutsche Bahn operates 2-hourly Intercity service from Zürich via Rottweil to Stuttgart and hourly relation by regional train from Stuttgart, from Freiburg or Konstanz. In 75 - 100 / 130 / 70 minutes you reach Rottweil from Stuttgart / Freiburg / Konstanz.

By bus

bwegt is the state public transit company and if you are coming from a nearby town or town such as Balingen or Tübingen, then the bus is a flexible option to use. There is also a direct Bus line between Villingen-Schwenningen and Rottweil.

By plane

The closest major airport to Rottweil is Stuttgart (IATA: STR). Friedrichshafen (IATA: FDH) has a smaller airport mostly served by short haul flights.

By car

About an hour's drive on the Autobahn from Stuttgart or from Freiburg, Rottweil is pretty easy to get to. It is the oldest town in this German area, so it is well linked to the Autobahn and other road networks.

Access with the Autobahn:

• A 81 Stuttgart - Singen, exiting at Rottweil.

You can also access Rottweil via the following highways:

• B 27 Stuttgart - Schaffhausen
• B 14 Herrenberg - Stockach
• B 462 Schramberg - Rottweil (from the Schwarzwald)

Get around

On foot

The town is not very large, so you can practically walk anywhere you need to go; just follow the roads. As you leave the train station, you will see the city centre up the slight hill.

By bus

Rottweil has a good bus system so if you need it do use it. If you are arriving at the train station (Hauptbahnhof)

• Citybus 9 (Stadtbus 9)
• 20 Müller-Reisen
• 7444 SBG and 7478, South Baden Bus Company/ Südbadenbus GmbH (SBG)
• V V R - another bus company that operates in Rottweil
• EFA - is more like the Bahn.de website where you input your destination and date and it searches the main bus companies

By taxi

There is a taxi stand at the train station. However, here are some numbers, should there be no taxis on the stand.

• Tel.: 07 41 / 2 35 55 (Taxi Hafa),
• Tel.: 07 41 / 5 30 04 00 (City-Taxi),
• Tel.: 07 41 / 1 20 06 (Taxi-Schmidt)

See

The heart of Rotweil is its walled old town set high above the valley. The walls are no longer complete, but you can certainly follow their course around three of the four sides of the town. On the fourth side, there was no real need for a wall, as the landscape drops down to a deep river valley.

Within the walls is a main street lined with traditional German town houses. An especially attractive one houses the tourist information. Opposite it there is the small town museum. At the top os the street there is the town gate which still imposes its presence and limits the entrance into the town.

The setting of the town can probably best be appreciated in the North East corner. Here you can see a small chapel and tower remains on the wall at the edge of the valley.

• Münster Heiliges Kreuz (Minster of the Holy Cross), Münsterplatz. late-Romanesque and Gothic-era, features a crucifix by Veit Stoss and noteworthy Gothic sculptures.
• Dominikaner museum, Kriegsdamm 4, 48.169256°, 8.626498°, +49 741 7662, dominikanermuseum@rottweil.de. Tu-Su 10:00-17:00.
• Burgruine Bernburg (ruined castle), 48.1801°, 8.6164°. 2017-11-25
• Rottweiler Memorial, 48.1675355°, 8.6258309°. a monument to the Rottweiler dog, one of the oldest of herding breeds, mastiff-type, dependable, rugged, with great intelligence and guarding instincts. 2017-12-20
• Rottweil elevator test tower, 48.179167°, 8.624833°. F: 10:00-18:00 Sa: 10:00-20:00 Su (and public holidays): 10:00-18:00. The highest elevator test tower in the world and one of only a few ones that can be visited by the general public. Thyssen Krupp is an industrial giant and among the leading innovators in elevators, focusing on elevators that can move up, down and sideways in the 2010s. 2017-12-19

Do

Buy

Eat

Drink

Sleep

• Garni - Hotel Sailer.
• Jugendherberge Rottweil, Oberamteigasse 13, 48.16858°, 8.62391°, +49 741 942 568 70, info@jugendherberge-rottweil.de.

Go next

• Tuttlingen
• Villingen-Schwenningen
• Bad Düreihm