“Lost Places” – 16th City Walk

„Lost Places“ – 16th City Walk

Our group discovered lost places and urban memory culture within the city of Erfurt during our 16th City Walk on the 15th of April 2026. We visited three former religious or urban places and explored how they are still present, remembered or otherwise used within the urban space of Erfurt today.

Jörg Rüpke introduced the topic of lost places at our first stop, by introducing theories on memory practices and forgetting. Referring to Paul Ricœur we talked about the types of forgetting, including getting rid of traces or the destruction of archives and archival materials to shape or restructure memory as well as creating myths about the past. Urban memory practices, like placing signs, information plates or memorial stones are intended to avoid losing memories of the past.

The ensemble of the merchants’ bridge with chapels at both ends was our first case study. Those chapels as points of protection were important parts of the wooden bridge that was later built into a stone bridge. In the 18th century one could still see the outlines of the former chapel of St. Benedict, which was sold to a merchant in 1807 and was used shortly as a storage hall, before being destroyed in 1810. The parish of St. Benedict was dissolved and former parish members were incorporated to other parishes nearby, for example to the Predigerkirche. The parish and church were destroyed both on organizational and material levels, but during the re-pavement of St. Benedict’s Square in 2020, the foundation of it was found. Now the former existence of the church is remembered through a QR-Code as well as through an outline of the foundation in the pavement of the place, lastly the square is called „Benediktsplatz“, referring to the former chapel’s name. In our discussion we talked about how cities can define themselves by commemorating lost places and stage differing uses of spaces throughout different centuries by layered stories within a city.

Sign at the St. Benedicts Square, nominally remembering the parish that existed here until the early 19th century, photo: Johannes Fischer.

Moving forward to Anger, Heiner Stahl shifted our focus to early modern Erfurt and a former massive renaissance building called „Stotternheimisches Palais“. It was built from 1605 to 1612 by Hiob von Stotternheim who died in 1617. The building he had planned for his family was never fully furnished and unfortunately burned down in a fire in the 1660s. Tim Erthel, city tour guide of Erfurt, researched the history of this now forgotten place that once shaped the Anger of Erfurt. The ruins of this place were reused in other buildings, dismantling the former palais that was planned by an important and rich citizen of Erfurt and by its size showed the relevance of the family’s wealth and impact on city politics. It was interesting to explore how memory culture can be materialised by buildings or memories being lost by the absence of materials.

Looking at the construction opened the discussion on how places, spaces and travel ways change and influences urban memory, photo: Johannes Fischer.

We further discussed the changing shape of Anger as well as the soundscape of this place. Inspired by the constructions we also talked about how travel-ways within the city changed and how this is remembered or not, and what can be discovered below the surface.

Walking to the ruins of Barfüßerkirche, photo: Johannes Fischer.

After visiting two spots where we could only image the former buildings, we went to Barfüßerkirche, where we could see the ruins of the former Franciscan monastery. This place lost its function as a church building. The former monastery was built in the 13th century and underwent major reconstructions after a town fire, after which it received a gothic architectural style. In 1525 the monastery was converted into a Protestant church and therefore the function of the religious building was reinterpreted. After we discussed the impact of the Reformation on spaces we focused back on the ruins in front of us and thought about how they are used for civic purposes like concerts or as open air theater today. After the destruction of the church in November 1944 the city decided to keep the ruins and not rebuild the church. This led us to think about in which different ways churches are restored after destructions or how destruction is commemorated. To conclude we shared thoughts on how lost places are needed to create new places and spaces for different functions.

Exploring the remains of the former monastery and church, photo: Johannes Fischer.

Over a coffee we continued talking about our ideas and finished the City Walk at a nearby café.

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