A bronze warrior leans over the water, a chest held at arm's length: on the Rhine promenade, the statue of Hagen immortalizes the most famous gesture of the Nibelungen legend, the treasure thrown into the river never to be found again. Cruise boats moor a few steps from this silhouette, along a shady bank marked by the Nibelungen Bridge and its crenellated gate tower. Worms thus sets the tone right from the gangway: this city in Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the oldest in Germany, has intertwined emperors, legendary heroes and major turning points in religious history for two thousand years.

From the riverbank to the cathedral

About fifteen minutes on foot separate the landing from the historic heart. The route first follows the waterside gardens, where residents walk dogs and push strollers beneath the plane trees, then heads into the shopping streets, until the four red sandstone towers of St. Peter's Cathedral suddenly appear. Along with Speyer and Mainz, Worms has one of the three Romanesque imperial cathedrals of the Rhine, and this one impresses with its compact, almost defensive mass. The interior cultivates simplicity, with one exception: a Baroque high altar designed by Balthasar Neumann, which sets the choir ablaze with gold and marble.

Luther before the emperor

Just steps away, a vast bronze ensemble recalls the event that carried the city's name far beyond the Rhine. In 1521, Martin Luther appeared here before Charles V and refused to recant his writings; the Diet of Worms then tipped Europe into the era of the Reformation. The monument erected to the reformer in the nineteenth century is among the most imposing of its kind, surrounded by the figures of his precursors. The neighbouring Heylshof garden occupies the site of the palace where the hearing took place: today you stroll among sculptures and well-tended flower beds.

Little Jerusalem on the Rhine

The old Rhine city also preserves one of the oldest Jewish heritages in Europe. Together with Speyer and Mainz, it forms the so-called ShUM cities, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the old Judengasse, the rebuilt synagogue and the medieval ritual bath, buried beneath a peaceful courtyard, follow one another along the same walk; the great commentator Rashi came to study here in the eleventh century, and readers from around the world still follow in his footsteps. A little apart, the Heiliger Sand cemetery lines up its leaning headstones in the grass, the oldest of which date back nearly a thousand years. The site, considered the oldest preserved Jewish cemetery in Europe, has a gravity that leaves a lasting mark on travellers.

Siegfried and the vines

The return to the river can include the Nibelungen Museum, set up in two towers of the medieval city wall: a sound and visual presentation tells the epic of Siegfried, Kriemhild and Hagen, whose action takes place largely in Worms. Another unexpected detour, the Gothic Liebfrauenkirche rises amid its own rows of vines, north of the centre: this vineyard gave its name to Liebfraumilch, a sweet white once shipped to the four corners of the globe. The vines surround the apse like a walled garden, and the image sums up the region well: here, vines grow right into the shadow of the bell towers.

Port of call at a glance

At the end of the day, the riverside promenade naturally leads back to the ship. Barges head upstream, the bridge tower lights up, and you pass Hagen once more, still frozen in mid-motion. The treasure sleeps somewhere beneath the eddies, says the legend; passengers are left with a very real one, that of a city that has seen Rome, the Burgundians and the Reformation pass through.