The medieval German town where every day is Oktoberfest

If the ogres of German legend ever existed, this is how they feasted: on pork belly with beans and pears, and sausages accompanied by fried potatoes and apple compote.

They’d be happy ogres in the cellars of Bremen’s town hall. Fat-bellied wooden barrels hold thousands of litres of wine. Wooden tables that fit families of 20 are worn to a century-old sheen. Waitresses have bulging triceps from hefting tankards the size of buckets.

Bremen’s town hall, market square and St Peter’s Cathedral.Credit: Alamy

Along the walls, wooden booths cramped as sailing ships’ cabins are designed for private meetings. In former times, you couldn’t close the doors unless you had an independent witness to your dealings.

Three ogres would struggle to fit, but you can picture them crammed shoulder to shoulder in flickering candlelight and red bonnets, like a scene from a Bruegel painting.

Bremen’s town hall evokes such fancies. In these ogre-free days, the cellars are full of locals clanking cutlery and drinking wine as if in the midst of a mini-Oktoberfest, but this is just regular lunchtime in Bremen.

Who said Germans aren’t relaxed? They can be a jolly lot and, despite the civic business conducted above, the beer cellars of Germany’s town halls are often the best place for unexpectedly convivial meals that will fill you for the rest of the day, if not two.

The interior of the town hall is as astonishing as the exterior.Credit: Getty

Bremen town hall is particularly special. It has stored and sold wine since 1406 and boasts the world’s largest collection of fine German wines. The oldest (1653) is held in a massive barrel and reserved for VIP visitors – Queen Elizabeth II once indulged – although the mayor of Bremen is allowed a sip just once during office.

The wine barrels are a marvel and carved with animals. Monkeys represent sprightly white wines, dragons full-bodied reds. Lions are for Riesling, the king of wines.

When you totter out of the cellar you’re confronted with a thousand other carvings on the town hall’s façade. Among them are 16 life-size emperors and prince-electors whose shapely legs and hairstyles would impress a drag queen.

The facade reminds you that Bremen is a free imperial city. Its town hall is a fifteenth-century assertion of municipal power designed to annoy the archbishop in the nearby cathedral.

The town hall is this city-state’s proud symbol, a showpiece of centuries of mercantile success.Credit: iStock

Today Bremen and its port town Bremerhaven constitute Germany’s smallest state, officially called the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Its old town is wedged between river and green belt and dissolves into the cobbled alleys of now trendy neighbourhood Schnoor.

The town hall is this city-state’s proud symbol, a showpiece of centuries of mercantile success. It’s one of Europe’s best brick Gothic buildings, enlarged with Renaissance and Art Nouveau extensions.

The interior is as astonishing as the exterior, and not just in the cellar. Rooms are filled with Dutch stoves and whale-bone chandeliers. The 1905 Golden Chamber is beyond gorgeous, a bijou room of gilded red-leather wallpaper, polished wood and Art Nouveau metalwork.

The ogres would be more at home in the immense Upper Hall, which is weighed down with wood carvings, paintings of ruffed merchants and mayors, and propaganda scenes from Bremen history. Fabulous antique model ships hang from the ceiling. In a Europe bloated with royal knick-knackery, it’s a pleasing display of unabashed bourgeois self-congratulation.

Outside, a towering statue of medieval hero Roland stands with sword upthrust, and the lips and hair of a Botticelli angel. The good burghers of Bremen once measured their cloth lengths by the distance between his armoured knees. Legend has it the city will remain free as long as the statue stands.

Waiters haul plates from the cellar loaded with herring and goulash to the town hall’s outdoor tables nearby. Locals tuck in with hearty appetites, and look set for another 600 years of good living.

Brian Johnston was a guest of the German National Tourist Office and Bremen Tourism Board. See bremen-tourismus.de

THE DETAILS

FLY
Emirates operates flights from Sydney and Melbourne via Dubai to Hamburg, a one-hour train ride from Bremen. See emirates.com

STAY
Hotel Residence is a mid-range hotel in a 19th-century villa with Art Deco flourishes and contemporary guestrooms. From $160 per night. See hotel-residence-bremen.de