Is Zum Schwarzen Bären really Weimar's oldest inn?

Dated to 1540 on its own sign; the Weißer Schwan on the Frauentorstraße makes a comparable claim to more than 450 years.

Is there a fixed menu?

No — the house cooks to a seasonal card that changes, rather than a fixed one.

Zum Schwarzen Bären

Name: Zum Schwarzen Bären
Address: Markt 20, Weimar, 99423, DE
Telephone: 03643 8776748
Price range: €€

Contact & Visit

Address

Markt 20
99423 Weimar

Phone

03643 8776748

Opening Hours

Daily 11:00–22:30.

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About Zum Schwarzen Bären

Zum Schwarzen Bären is an inn on the market square working to a card that changes with the season rather than a fixed menu. Sitting here means sitting on the Markt, with everything the square is used for arriving at the door.

Anno 1540, by its own sign

The house puts the year in its own name plate and calls itself the oldest inn in Weimar;^[1] the Weißer Schwan, over on the Frauentorstraße, dates itself to more than four hundred and fifty years and claims a place among the oldest in Europe. Both can be true at once. What they tell you together is that this is a town where a good many houses have been feeding people since long before the poets arrived.

A hundred years of the arched passage

The house also marks the centenary of its historic Rundbogen, the arched passage through the building, and illustrates it with a picture postcard of itself dated 1926. It is a small thing to celebrate and a revealing one: what a house chooses to commemorate says something about what it thinks it is. This one is proud of a piece of its own fabric rather than of a famous guest, which on a square this heavily walked is close to modest.

Questions visitors ask

Is Zum Schwarzen Bären really Weimar's oldest inn?: Dated to 1540 on its own sign;^[1] the Weißer Schwan on the Frauentorstraße makes a comparable claim to more than 450 years.
What are the opening hours?: Daily, 11:00 to 22:30.
Is there a fixed menu?: No — the house cooks to a seasonal card that changes, rather than a fixed one.