Nuremberg's Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg): what each part is and which ticket covers it

The short answer

Nuremberg's Imperial Castle (Kaiserburg) is run by the Bavarian Palace Administration and is visited in four ticketed parts: the Palas with its double chapel, the Imperial Castle Museum in the Bower, the Deep Well and the Sinwell Tower. Its "Imperial Castle" combination ticket covers all four; two partial tickets split them into the Palas-and-museum pair and the well-and-tower pair, and the castle gardens are free. The castle's admission page says tickets are sold only at the cash desk in the outer courtyard, and that ordering them online is not possible.[5]

What the castle is

The Imperial Castle stands on a sandstone elevation, and the Bavarian Palace Administration's history page ties it to the kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, who held court assemblies and Imperial Diets in Nuremberg.[2] The same page says the Hohenstaufen kings built the complex that is "still largely what we see today" over older remains, and installed a burgrave in the front part, the Burgrave's Castle, to administer the imperial property. In 1356 Charles IV's Golden Bull named Nuremberg as the place where each newly elected ruler had to hold his first Imperial Diet; the same page counts 74 stays by Ludwig IV and 52 by Charles IV. From 1427 the whole complex belonged to the city, which in 1423 had been entrusted with the imperial regalia.[1]

The castle visitors see is largely rebuilt. The Palace Administration says that in 1945 it lay "practically" in ruins, with important Romanesque and late Gothic sections surviving, and that Rudolf Esterer rebuilt it almost exactly as he had redesigned it before the war. That pre-war work, begun in 1934, replaced the nineteenth-century neo-Gothic interiors and, the page states, also aimed, "with a view to future party conferences of the NSDAP", at creating an "apartment" for important guests of the Reich.[1] The Nazi-era sites of the city are covered in the Documentation Center and Memorium guide.

The four parts

Palas and double chapel. The Palas, a hall building with a residential wing, was built around 1200 together with the double chapel, according to the Palace Administration's Palas page.[2] The tour begins in the Knights' Hall, continues to the double chapel and then, via the emperor's gallery, to the upper-floor rooms with the permanent exhibition "Emperor – Empire – City. The Imperial Castle in Nuremberg".[2] The opening-hours page says there are no guided tours in the Palas; visitors go round on their own, with an audio guide available for a fee in seven languages.[7]

Imperial Castle Museum. The Palas route leads on into the Bower, which since 1999 has housed the Imperial Castle Museum, a branch of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.[2] It covers the history of the castle and its military side, with armour and weapons, and the Palace Administration singles out a scaling ladder and a pavise shield. The Bower itself burned almost completely in 1945 and was reconstructed between 1968 and 1971.[3] The Palas and the museum share one ticket.[5]

Deep Well. The well house in the middle of the bailey is dated 1563 by its inscription; the well is first documented in the 14th century but, the Palace Administration argues, is probably as old as the castle itself.[4] It can only be seen on a guided tour, which the opening-hours page says is included in the entrance fee.[7]

Sinwell Tower. The round keep at the east end of the bailey dates from the second half of the thirteenth century and takes its name from Middle High German "sinwell", roughly "extremely round". Inside is an exhibition of photographs of the castle and city after their destruction in the Second World War.[4] The viewing level is reached only by stairs; the accessibility page counts 113 steps.[9]

Which ticket covers what

The table restates the English admission page for 2026, which also lists the Castle Gardens and the Maria Sibylla Merian Garden as free. The same page lists a combined ticket with Cadolzburg Castle, a separate castle.[5]

The German version of the page lists one more ticket that the English page does not: a "Kombiticket Kaiserburg + Stadtmuseum im Fembo-Haus", one visit to the castle and one to the City Museum in the Fembo House, covering admission but not any extra guided-tour fees.[6] Read on the same day, the two language versions therefore disagree on what is on sale; the German page carries the fuller list.

Both versions say tickets are bought at the cash desk in the outer courtyard by cash or card, and that online ordering is not possible.[6] According to the English page, visitors under 18 are admitted free, and children under 14 may enter the Palace Administration's properties only with an adult supervisor.[5]

How deep is the Deep Well?

The castle's own pages give two figures. The page describing the Deep Well and Sinwell Tower says the shaft "has been driven down over 50 metres into the rock".[4] The accessibility page, describing the screen that shows a camera's descent for visitors who cannot look into the shaft, gives the well as 45 metres deep.[9] XTOUR does not resolve the difference.

Access, as the Palace Administration describes it

The accessibility page describes a step-free ticket office and a lifting platform from the Bower to the Knights' Hall and the Wedding Room. It also states that the upper floor of the Palas, the double chapel and the upper floor of the Bower are reachable only by stairs, and that the Deep Well entrance has a step.[9] XTOUR has no accessibility information beyond that page.

Opening times

The castle publishes summer and winter hours, a last entry about an hour before closing, and a short list of closing days that includes Shrove Tuesday and 24, 25 and 31 December. The castle gardens follow their own season and close in winter, according to the same page.[7] XTOUR does not restate the hours; the opening-hours page is the current source.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not know how long the queue at the cash desk is, how often the Deep Well tours run or how full they are, or how long a visit takes. It has no routing data, so it gives no walking times from the old town or the station up to the castle. XTOUR does not restate the 2026 prices; the Palace Administration lists them on its admission page.[5]

For the city, see Nuremberg and Germany. In Advent, the Christkindlesmarkt is covered in the Christmas markets guide.