Coverage · Germany
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university city whose identity has been shaped by scholarship for nearly three centuries: founded in 1737, Georg-August University counts over 40 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and faculty. The medieval old town survives largely intact, ringed by a linden-lined promenade where a fortress wall once stood, and the bronze Goose Girl on the market square is arguably the most-kissed statue in Germany.
23+ researched places in the app
Places researched in this city
A selection of the 23 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.
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Goose Girl Fountain
Every doctoral graduate who completes their degree here is expected to climb up and kiss the bronze statue, a tradition the city council once tried to ban by fining offenders five marks. Created in 1901 by Heinrich Stöckhardt and Paul Nisse, the 7.10-metre fountain has stood at the heart of Göttingen's market square ever since.
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Old Town Hall
Construction began around 1270, before Göttingen even had a central administrative building, and the hall doubled as a merchants' trading house well into the medieval period. Its Gothic town hall arbour, added between 1369 and 1443, still frames the market square today.
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St. Jacobi Church
At 72 metres, St. Jacobi's tower is the tallest structure in Göttingen's old town, built between 1426 and 1459 under Hildesheim master builder Hans Rutenstein. The church stands on the site of a castle chapel that dates back to around 1186, and its 1402 Gothic winged altarpiece survives intact.
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Georg-August University
King George II founded the university in 1732/1734 during the Age of Enlightenment, and by its second semester it already had 400 students, making it one of the larger universities in Europe at the time. Its neoclassical Aula, built between 1835 and 1837, anchors Wilhelmsplatz and still hosts the university's ceremonial events.
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Göttingen City Wall
Duke Ernst of Brunswick-Göttingen authorised the wall's construction in 1362, and it took over 200 years to complete the full defensive circuit with interconnected moats and towers. In 1765 it was transformed into a public promenade planted with around 400 linden trees, one of the earliest conversions of its kind in Germany.
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Monument of the Göttingen Seven
In 1837, seven professors at the university, including Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, were dismissed and three expelled from the kingdom for refusing to accept a king's annulment of the liberal constitution. The Corten steel monument designed by Günter Grass and unveiled in 2011 stands on campus as a permanent reminder of that act of academic defiance.
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Junkernschanke
The wood carvings covering this 1446 half-timbered facade mix biblical scenes, planetary gods, and heraldic coats of arms in a programme that Renaissance Göttingen apparently found entirely normal above a tavern. Mayor Gyseler Schwanenflogel commissioned the transformation between 1547 and 1549, and the building has housed a tavern continuously since 1883.
Good to know
- How many places does Parroo cover in Göttingen?
- 23 researched places, from the Goose Girl Fountain and the Old Town Hall to lesser-known spots like the Junkernschanke. Each one has a short summary, a full article, and a ~3-minute audio story.
- Is there an audio guide?
- Yes. Every place has a ~3-minute audio story, written from the perspective of a guide standing next to you and produced with premium narration, not the article read aloud.
- Which languages is Göttingen available in?
- German, English, and French. Pick whichever you'd rather read or listen in.
- Do I need to book anything or be online?
- No booking, no signup. It's a self-guided walk you start whenever you like. You do need a connection for now to stream the audio and load articles; offline support is something we're still building.
Open this city in Parroo
Get the full articles, audio stories, and map for this city in the Parroo app. One payment per geography. Yours to keep.
Updated: 2026-05-29