The Imperial Castle in Nuremberg: Which Ticket, in What Order and Winter Hours

The cash desk is the only place that sells a Kaiserburg ticket, and the first decision happens at its window. The second is just as easy: the Palas and museum ticket plus the well and tower ticket, bought separately, cost more than the combined one. If you want the Palas and also the tower or the well, take the combined ticket and stop counting.

Which Imperial Castle ticket to buy

There are three tickets. The combined one costs €10 and opens the Palas with its double chapel, the Imperial Castle Museum, the deep well and the Sinwell Tower. The Palas and museum ticket costs €7, and the well and tower ticket costs €4. Nothing is sold online, so the tickets are paid for in the outer courtyard, the Vorburg, by cash or by card.

Under 18s go in free, and so do students of general and vocational schools who show a student card, though a child under 14 enters only with an adult. The gardens are free for everyone. The NürnbergCard includes the castle as well, so compare it with the combined ticket if you plan other sights too. An audio guide for the Palas is sold separately for €2.

Tickets are sold only at the cash desk in the outer courtyard, by cash or card. Under 18s go in free.

In what order to walk the castle

From the cash desk go to the Sinwell Tower first. It is a round tower from the late thirteenth century, topped in the 1560s with a platform and a Renaissance cap, and the view from it takes in the castle and the Old Town. Inside hang photographs of the same roofs before and after the Second World War, which makes the climb worth more than the view alone.

Then go to the well, and finish in the Palas, which holds the double chapel and the permanent exhibition. The museum in the Kemenate follows, a branch of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum with weapons from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. The Palas and the museum have no guide and are walked at your own pace, and the lift reaches only the Rittersaal, so every other floor means stairs.

The deep well and the Sinwell Tower

The well, the Tiefer Brunnen, is cut almost 50 metres into the rock, and it can be seen only on a guided visit that comes with the ticket. The guide lowers a camera down the shaft and explains how the castle got its water. Nothing about the time or the language of the guide is announced in advance, so ask at the cash desk about the well first.

The tower is the opposite experience. You climb on your own, with no guide, and the city lies open at the top. It is part of the combined ticket and of the well and tower ticket alone, and the Palas ticket does not open it. Dogs may enter the courtyard on a lead but not the castle, the well, the tower or the gardens, and drones are forbidden everywhere.

Hours, closed days and gardens

The castle keeps summer and winter hours, and the last entry comes about an hour before closing. Hours and closed days: April to September 9 am–6 pm, October to March 10 am–4 pm; last entry about an hour before closing; closed 1 Jan, Shrove Tuesday and 24, 25, 31 Dec

The gardens follow a calendar of their own and close completely in winter. A winter visit therefore has the Palas, the well and the tower, and nothing outside them. Seasons: castle garden 26 March to 1 November from 8 am until dark (8 pm at latest), closed in winter; Merian Garden Sundays and Mondays in the afternoon

When to goWinter in Nuremberg shortens the castle day and brings the Christkindlesmarkt, and the page on when to go explains how the two fit together.The best time to visit Nuremberg →

If you have only an hour

An hour is enough for the tower and the Palas. The rest goes first.

• Buy the combined ticket anyway, since it opens every part of the castle.
• Climb the Sinwell Tower first for the view and the photographs.
• Walk through the Palas and its double chapel, and take the lift only up to the Rittersaal.
• Leave the museum in the Kemenate and the gardens for another visit.

Getting aroundThree stops serve the castle, the tram at Tiergärtnertor, the bus at Burgstraße and the underground at Lorenzkirche, and a day ticket costs €10.60.Getting around Nuremberg →