Durante l’Avvento il centro di Freiburg, in Germany, dresses up for the holiday season, and its Christmas market (from November 22 to December 23, 2018) is a great opportunity to visit the city, for pleasant moments spent among the stalls, tasting delicacies, and creative workshops.
At the Freiburg Christmas Markets you can find precious ceramics, colorful decorations, felt and wool products, and gastronomic delights. At the Freiburg Christmas market, held in the beautiful medieval-Renaissance squares of the city gathered around the elegant Gothic cathedral, you can find a bit of everything.
Strolling among the many wooden houses, December shopping is completed, while the scents of ginger and cinnamon, key ingredients of Advent sweets in northern Europe, spread in the air.
At the Freiburg Christmas market, there are also attractions for children, who can have fun in the wax workshop making handmade candles, or try their hand as pastry chefs, baking Christmas cookies to take home.
And for a touch of extra magic, you can visit the nativity scene set up in the Church of St. Martin, where every evening you can also listen to ecumenical songs.
Bo-Gart Weihnachtsmarkt and Munzingen Markets
On the Advent weekends, in addition to the traditional Freiburg market, there is the Bo-Gart Weihnachtsmarkt at the Bollschweil castle, where you can browse peacefully among about 50 exhibitor tables, walking through the elegant gardens and the suggestively decorated 18th-century courtyards, adorned with torches, fires, and fir branches decorating the large windows (15th – 16th December), and the Munzingen Christmas Market in the Reinach castle, a refined hotel housed in a period setting: in the courtyard of the building there are stalls offering handcrafted items, Christmas decorations, and culinary-themed gift ideas (16th – 17th December).
Not only Christmas Markets in Freiburg
Not far from Freiburg you can ski, walk, and have fun in a snowy landscape. You can then choose the nearby nature of the Black Forest, between romantic atmospheres and sledding rides. The pre-Christmas period is, after all, a time of celebrations: to toast, in Freiburg this is the season of Christmas beers and Glühbier – from a secret but special recipe.
The station of Schauinsland mountain offers slopes for alpine skiing, cross-country, and snowboarding, and invites invigorating walks with snowshoes on your feet. Here there is also a “sleigh ski lift”, which allows you to comfortably ascend to the top of the 300-meter slope, then rush down towards the base at full speed.
Christmas Beer, Freiburg
The Christmas beer in Freiburg absolutely deserves a taste during the Christmas season. This variety of beer, generally richer and spicier than the traditional drink, is craft-produced in Freiburg by the Martin’s Bräu craft brewery, and can be tasted in the month of December.
And if the specialty of the Christmas markets has always been mulled wine, in German Glühwein, the Ganter brewery of Freiburg has invented the Glühebier, a spicy and wintery variation of its own beer.
The recipe, which remains secret, starts from a dark and aromatic Lager, the brewery’s specialty since 1898. The Glühbier can already be tasted on Fridays and Saturdays at the Ganter brewery’s venue, directly on the square in front of Freiburg Cathedral, from November 23 to December 22, 2018.
Freiburg, capital of the Black Forest
Freiburg in Breisgau, in southern Germany, is a lively town, known for its historic center, the wonderful Gothic cathedral, and the high quality of life of its inhabitants.
Home to an important university and committed to eco-sustainability, Freiburg is also considered the capital of the Black Forest, and it is the city boasting the highest number of sunshine hours in all of Germany. Cultured and refined, Freiburg is the ideal destination for a city break, and offers interesting opportunities for visits throughout the year – from the music and food festivals of spring and summer, to the harvest celebrations in autumn, up to the Christmas markets during Advent. From Italy, Freiburg can be reached by road and with direct flights to the EuroAirport Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg from numerous cities, including Rome and Venice. The train connection between Milan and Freiburg is operated in less than five hours.
