Roland
Roland stands in Bremen’s market square, facing the cathedral as a limestone guardian of civic freedom. Erected in 1404, the statue depicts Charlemagne’s paladin with an unsheathed sword and a shield bearing the two-headed Imperial eagle.
The figure rises 5.47 metres above a 60-centimetre rostrum, while its supporting column and baldachin bring the full height to 10.21 metres. Bremen’s city fathers commissioned this limestone work from the Elm after a wooden predecessor burned in 1366, and its stance opposite the cathedral expresses city rights against the prince-archbishop’s territorial claims. Together with Bremen Town Hall, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, while Monument Protection has safeguarded it since 1973.
A local legend says Bremen will remain free while Roland keeps watch, with a second statue supposedly hidden beneath the town hall. In Neustadt, the smaller Kleiner Roland has stood since 1737.
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Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Bremen. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
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myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.