Medieval Booker

Medieval festivals in Germany

16 medieval festivals in Germany with dates for 2026–2027 — where they happen, when, and how to choose.

Germany takes its Mittelaltermärkte seriously, and these are the set pieces. Kaltenberger Ritterturnier, three July weekends west of Munich, is a professional joust with stunts and pyrotechnics; nothing inside is free and the evening shows run past midnight. Landshuter Hochzeit 1475 happens every fourth summer, when Landshut restages a ducal wedding for three and a half weeks; the procession is free and stands sell out fast. At Whitsun Rothenburg ob der Tauber performs Der Meistertrunk, a play in which a former mayor saves the town by draining more than three litres of wine, plus a procession and a soldiers’ camp. Through Advent the Esslingen Medieval Market & Christmas Market is the one where the costume is not decoration.

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16 festivals, upcoming first

November 2026

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Munich Medieval Christmas Market at Wittelsbacherplatz

    Munich, Germany

    The Mittelalterlicher Weihnachtsmarkt am Wittelsbacherplatz, billed by the city as the Münchner Adventsspektakel, has filled the square north of Odeonsplatz with costumed traders, historical crafts, medieval music and staged sword fights every Advent since 2005. The 2026 market runs 20 November – 23 December, daily 11:00–21:00, closed on Totensonntag (22 November); entry is free.

    – 2026
    Free Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Siegburg Medieval Christmas Market

    Siegburg, Germany

    The Mittelalterlicher Markt zu Siegburg turns the market square below the Michaelsberg abbey into a medieval town market for the whole of Advent, with costumed traders, working craftspeople, jesters and musicians and a night watchman's call every evening; the 2026 market runs 20 November – 22 December. Held since 1991, it is free to enter, and the organiser has already published the 2027 dates, 19 November – 22 December.

    – 2026
    Free Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Lübeck Historical Christmas Market on the Marienkirchhof

    Lübeck, Germany

    The Historischer Weihnachtsmarkt on the Marienkirchhof, the churchyard between St Mary's and the Rathaus in Lübeck's UNESCO-listed old town, is the medieval-styled one of the Hanseatic city's eleven Christmas markets: craftspeople showing forgotten trades, coppersmiths, silversmiths and pewter casters, walk-acts and musicians in historical dress under candles and a canopy of red paper stars. The 2026 market runs 23 November – 23 December and is free to enter.

    – 2026
    Free Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Pforzheim Medieval Christmas Market

    Pforzheim, Germany

    Pforzheim's Mittelaltermarkt im Blumenhof runs for more than five weeks each winter, from the Monday before Advent to 30 December, with costumed traders and craftspeople, a wooden-tub bathhouse, axe throwing, a hand-cranked chain carousel and a stage of medieval bands beside the town's Stadtmuseum; the 2026 market runs 23 November – 30 December and is free to enter. The 2025 edition was the thirteenth, and the market is one of the few in Germany open between Christmas and New Year.

    – 2026
    Free Family
  • Featured
    Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Esslingen Medieval Market & Christmas Market

    Esslingen am Neckar, Germany

    Esslingen am Neckar's combined medieval market and Christmas market fills the half-timbered old town from the last week of November until just before Christmas. Around 200 stalls and roughly 500 programme slots of jugglers, fire artists, craft demonstrations and music make it the largest event of its kind in southern Germany.

    – 2026
    Free Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Dresden Medieval Christmas Market in the Stallhof

    Dresden, Germany

    The Mittelalter-Weihnacht im Stallhof fills the 16th-century tournament yard of Dresden's Residenzschloss with more than fifty costumed traders and craftspeople working with late-medieval tools, musicians and a bathhouse from the Wednesday before Advent to 23 December; the 2026 market runs 25 November – 23 December. It reopens as the Dresdner Rauhnächte between Christmas and Epiphany, one of the very few medieval markets in Europe that is open in early January.

    – 2026
    Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Durlach Medieval Christmas Market

    Durlach, Germany

    The Mittelalterlicher Weihnachtsmarkt Durlach fills the Schlossplatz in front of the Karlsburg, the former palace of the margraves of Baden-Durlach, with costumed traders, craftspeople, jesters and the knights of the Badische Schwertspieler from the Wednesday before Advent to the fourth Sunday of Advent; the 2025 market ran 26 November – 21 December and the 2026 edition is expected on 25 November – 20 December. Started in 2002 as a fundraiser for the victims of that year's Elbe flood, it has been run by the Durlach clubs' association since 2008.

    Expected 2026
    Family
  • Medieval Christmas

    Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt

    Nuremberg, Germany

    Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt fills the Hauptmarkt and the Rathausplatz from the Friday before the first Advent to Christmas Eve with 168 red-and-white wooden stalls and about 180 traders, opened each year by the Christkind's prologue from the gallery of the Frauenkirche and drawing around two million people; the 2026 market runs 27 November to 24 December. It is not a medieval market: the square is 14th-century and the Frauenkirche was Charles IV's imperial court chapel, but the market itself is first documented in 1678 — a date the market's own historians revised from 1628 — and t...

    – 2026
    Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Medieval Christmas

    Ronneburg Castle Historical Christmas Market

    Ronneburg, Germany

    On the first three Advent weekends the 13th-century hilltop castle of Ronneburg, east of Frankfurt between the Wetterau and the Vogelsberg, opens its halls and towers for a historical Christmas market: stalls in the castle rooms, a medieval market with jesters, musicians, taverns and craftspeople outside the walls, and a living nativity play. The 2026 market runs on 28–29 November, 5–6 and 12–13 December, Saturdays 11:00–20:00 and Sundays 11:00–18:00; admission is €10 for adults, €7 for children and €7 for anyone in full historical costume.

    – 2026
    Family

May 2027

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Castle Events +1

    MPS Rastede (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum)

    Rastede, Germany

    The Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum's four-day stop in the Schlosspark of Rastede over the Ascension weekend is the longest on its tour: a medieval-fantasy market of around 120 stalls, more than 50 encampments, tournament arenas for mounted and foot combat, fire shows and bands, in the park of the Oldenburg grand dukes' summer palace on the site of a 1091 abbey. The market, camps and tournaments are the medieval backbone; the costumes, the theme and the name are openly fantasy.

    – 2027
    Family
  • Der Meistertrunk (Rothenburg Whitsun Festival) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber Hiroki Ogawa · CC BY 3.0
    Featured
    Living History & Museums Historic City Celebrations

    Der Meistertrunk (Rothenburg Whitsun Festival)

    Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

    Rothenburg ob der Tauber's Whitsun festival re-enacts the legend of 1631, when former mayor Nusch supposedly saved the town from General Tilly's army by emptying a tankard holding more than three litres of wine in one draught. Citizens have performed the play 'Der Meistertrunk' since 1881, framed by a four-day festival with a costumed procession, military camp, shepherds' dance and crafts market.

    – 2027
    Family

June 2027

  • Landshuter Hochzeit 1475 in Landshut Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
    Featured
    Jousting & Tournaments Living History & Museums +1

    Landshuter Hochzeit 1475

    Landshut, Germany

    Every four years about 2,500 costumed citizens of Landshut restage the 1475 wedding of Duke Georg the Rich and Princess Hedwig of Poland over three and a half weeks of processions, tournaments, camp life and plays. First performed in 1903, it is Europe's largest historical costume festival; the next edition runs 25 June–18 July 2027.

    – 2027
    Family

July 2027

  • Kaltenberger Ritterturnier in Kaltenberg Dark Avenger · CC BY 3.0
    Featured
    Medieval Markets & Fairs Jousting & Tournaments +1

    Kaltenberger Ritterturnier

    Kaltenberg, Germany

    The Kaltenberg Knights' Tournament is a professionally staged jousting spectacle with horse stunts and pyrotechnics in a 13,000-capacity arena at Schloss Kaltenberg, surrounded by a large medieval market and five stages. Founded in 1980 by Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, it runs over three weekends every July and draws around 120,000 visitors.

    – 2027
    Family
  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Castle Events +1

    MPS Bückeburg (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum)

    Bückeburg, Germany

    The Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum is Germany's touring medieval-fantasy market, on the road every summer since 1994, and its Bückeburg stop in the grounds of Schloss Bückeburg is its flagship: two weekends at the turn of July and August with a large market, knights' tournaments, encampments, bands and street performers. It is medieval in its market, camp and tournament and fantasy by declaration, having taken the word into its name in 2008, and it is held beside a palace whose moated predecessor is documented in 1304.

    – 2027
    Family

August 2027

  • ConQuest of Mythodea in Brokeloh S. Bollmann · Attribution
    Medieval Markets & Fairs Fantasy Fairs & Spectacles

    ConQuest of Mythodea

    Brokeloh, Germany

    ConQuest of Mythodea is the world's largest live-action role-playing game: for five days each August up to 10,000 costumed participants build camps, markets and armies on the Rittergut Brokeloh estate and fight over a fictional continent. It is a game rather than a spectator festival, with medieval-style camps, crafts and markets as its backbone and a wholly invented fantasy world on top; non-players can enter only as day visitors, 200 a day and in medieval dress.

    – 2027

September 2027

  • Medieval Markets & Fairs Music, Feasts & Theatre +1

    MPS Luhmühlen (Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum)

    Luhmühlen, Germany

    The September stop of the Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum turns the event ground on the Westergellerser Heide near Luhmühlen into a three-day medieval-fantasy camp that the tour calls the 'Fette Heide': market, encampments, a knights' tournament, bands and street performers on open heathland in the Lüneburg Heath. The market, camp and tournament are medieval in form; the costumes and the theme are fantasy, and the setting is heath rather than castle.

    – 2027
    Family

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