Every design for Reutlingen

Reutlingen lays claim to the narrowest street in the world: the Spreuerhofstraße squeezes between two rows of houses so tightly that most people turn sideways to pass. It is a fitting oddity for a town that has always been proud of its own corners.

The Tübinger Tor is one of the old gates that still mark where the walls once stood, and the Gartentor and the Kesselturm survive too. Inside them, the old town gathers round the Gothic Marienkirche and the streets near the Echaz, the small river that curves round the centre. Reutlingen was a free imperial city for centuries, then a town of weavers; its university of applied sciences began as a weaving school, and textiles, leather and machinery still matter here. Above it all rises the Achalm, a lone hill with a rebuilt castle tower at the top and the Swabian Jura behind it, which is why locals call their town the gateway to the Alb.

Grow up here and the Achalm becomes your compass. On the map you can trace the way home from it, past the gates and down to the river.