Downtown

The City hall

The town hall was built in 1425 by the citizens and served as a market hall and fruit box. On the ground floor there was space for the market stalls of local traders and craftsmen. Customers were able to compare the goods on offer and the authorities could control quality and prices. Anyone who did not adhere to law and order found themselves in the town hall's holding cell. In the rear part of the building there was a passage that was used to unload the teams that delivered fruit. The first floor, at that time still accessible via an outside staircase, consisted largely of a Gothic hall for representational purposes. There was also the council chamber, the mayor's office and the city clerk's room. The floors above were used as granaries.

The market place

The market square was the center of the city in the Middle Ages. A market was held here and the proud citizens built the spacious town hall here in 1425. But things only really got busy in 1557, when Duke Christoph ordered the momentous relocation of the road connection from Urach to Ulm via Blaubeuren. This trade route connected Vienna with Paris. Blaubeuren now had a connection to long-distance transport, with enormous consequences for restaurants, hostels and trade. There were four restaurants here on the market square alone. The affected carters were the losers, because the hill-climbing of Blaubeuren, also known as the steep or evil climb, was feared and unpopular.

With the advent of the automobile and especially with the sharp increase in private transport after the Second World War, the Blaubeuren market square became a bottleneck and Christoph's blessing became a curse. Until 1983, all traffic on the B 28 was forced through the city, an intolerable situation in terms of urban development. It was not uncommon for the collision of large trucks and buses to come to a standstill and it no longer seemed possible to go back and forth. Then only the mayor could help “as the highest authority” by regulating traffic from above from the window of his office in the town hall. Thanks to the bypass, the old town was made more attractive again through renovation measures in the 1980s.

The market fountain

The fountain represents the city's water wealth. Originally essential for the water supply of citizens, it lost this function with the construction of water pipes to private households. However, the people of Blaubeuren vehemently prevented the planned dismantling of the fountain. In 1816 the stone basin, which had become leaky, was replaced by modern, cast-iron plates. These were considered indestructible, but were also very expensive. For this reason, rich decoration had to be avoided. This means that only the city coat of arms, state coat of arms and year adorn the basin. The original stone Renaissance fountain from the 16th century is still reminiscent of the fountain column with the mighty lion, which holds the city coat of arms and the ducal coat of arms of Württemberg in its paws and shows travelers who is in charge in the city.

The city's coat of arms

The city's coat of arms shows the Blaumännle, a man dressed in blue, who proudly carries the deer sticks of Württemberg. His head is decorated with a green wreath, a reference to the city's wealth of forests. The Württemberg coat of arms next to it consists of four segments: the deer poles of Württemberg, the diamonds of the Teck, the Reichssturm flag and the fishes of Montbéliard.