View of the City from the "Freiung" at the Castle

During the 19th century,
people were particularly fascinated by unobstructed views of the city and
landscape from a height, and the courtyard in front of the Walpurgis Chapel on
Castle Hill was an ideal spot for gazing far out into Nuremberg's environs.

The city's two main
churches, St. Sebald and St. Lorenz, with their double towers and tall
late-Gothic hall choirs, rise impressively from among the throng of buildings.
Another dominant feature among the old town's shapes is the elongated
Renaissance façade of the Rathaus, the City Hall, built by Jakob Wolff the
Younger in 1616–1620, opposite the choir of the Sebalduskirche. One of the few
new structures within the Old Town, which otherwise still retains a medieval
flavor, is the Royal Bank building in front of the Lorenzkirche, built in
1847–1849 to plans by City Chief Architect Bernhard Solger. The photograph also
clearly illustrates the city's gradual expansion beyond its walls during the
second half of the 19th century. Construction did not stop at the wall guarded
by the Frauentor, but continued beyond – though the large industrial
installations of MAN and Siemens that would dominate the southern part of town
in the 20th century had not been built yet.