Zum roten Bären (translation: ''The Red Bear'') is a hotel and restaurant in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

; it has a claim to be the oldest hotel in Germany and Europe. The foundations of the hotel predate the founding of the town of

by the dukes of the

House of Zähringen The House of Zähringen () was a dynasty of Duchy of Swabia, Swabian nobility. The family's name derived from Zähringen Castle near Freiburg im Breisgau. The Zähringer in the 12th century used the title of Duke of Zähringen, in compensation fo ...

in 1120. Records show that site of Zum roten Bären was already used as an inn in the 12th century. The first landlord for whom there is written documentation is Hanmann Bienger, whose name was listed in a land register of the nearby monastery of Adelhausen in March 1387. Many of the landlords were also court officials and councilmen of the city of Freiburg and often also guild masters. For some time, the

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

hall of the

shoemakers Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

was located at Zum Roten Bären, as can be seen in one of the windows of Freiburg Cathedral. After French soldiers damaged an older building during the Rhine campaign of 1713, the building visible today was built by landlord Andreas Pflug in the

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

and completed in 1718. Parts of the external walls and cellars remain from the original 12th-century building. Current managers Christoph Glück and Christian Böhler—who bought the hotel in 2017—are the 51st landlords.

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* Hotels in Freiburg im Breisgau Companies established in the 14th century 14th-century establishments in the Holy Roman Empire {{BadenWürttemberg-struct-stub

See also

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