The market square with the town hall is the "parlor" of Tübingen, but the high houses around - most of them from the 15th and 16th century - give the square a "homely atmosphere". Four times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat) the weekly market invites you to shop. On warm summer nights, the square around the fountain is a popular meeting place for young people.
The market place was first mentioned in writing in 1302, but traders already in 1191. The Renaissance fountain with Neptune and trident was designed by Heinrich Schickhardt in 1617 according to the Bolognese model. The female figures at the foot of Neptune represent the four seasons. Silhouettes of heads can be seen in the tendril work of the water pipes. They are representations of the citizens of Tübingen who participated in the reconstruction after World War II, when the stone fountain was replaced by bronze.
Where today a café and restaurant with a view of the town hall invites visitors to stop, the poet and democrat Hermann Kurz (1813-1873) lived until his death. His daughter, the writer Isolde Kurz (1853-1944), grew up here.
