Why Augsburg’s Angels Are Worth the Trip
At six o’clock on an Advent weekend, the lights on Augsburg’s Rathausplatz go down, and one by one the windows of the great Renaissance town hall open to show angels in gold and white, while a square full of people stands and watches with mugs of Glühwein in their hands.
When the first window opens it’s as close to a child’s picture of Christmas as any market gets, and it’s the reason to come.
The market around that show is one of the oldest in Germany, with the city council already squabbling over stall places in 1498, and it still feels like the town’s own, homelier than Munich’s and a euro or two cheaper a cup, with our Best value award to show for it.
If you’re in Bavaria for the markets, give it an evening and be on the Rathausplatz at 18:00 on a Friday or Sunday.
When Is the Augsburg Christmas Market 2026?
The Augsburg Christmas market, the Christkindlesmarkt, runs from Monday 23 November to Thursday 24 December 2026, and entry is free.
It’s open from 10:00 to 20:00 Sunday to Thursday and until 21:30 on Fridays and Saturdays, and the opening night on 23 November only runs from 18:00 to 21:30, starting with the first angel show.
The angels are back at 18:00 every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 27 November to 20 December, and once more on 23 December, and that’s the calendar to plan your trip round.
Weekday afternoons are calm, but the square fills up for the show at the weekend, with Saturday evening the fullest of all, so the Friday or Sunday show is the better bet. From 1 December a window of the Advent calendar on the square opens at 16:45 each day until the 23rd, which gives you a reason to get there early.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Mon 23 Nov | Opening night, 18:00 to 21:30, with the first angel show at 18:00 |
| Thu 26 Nov | Christmas Garden light trail opens at Augsburg Zoo, until 9 Jan |
| Fri 27 Nov | Angel shows every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 18:00 until 20 Dec |
| Tue 1 Dec | First Advent calendar window on the Rathausplatz, then daily at 16:45 |
| Sat 5 Dec | Domsingknaben Christmas concert in the Golden Hall, 15:00 |
| Sun 6 Dec | St Nicholas speaks on the Rathausplatz at 15:00, and the Domsingknaben sing in the Golden Hall at 11:00 and 15:00 |
| Sun 13 Dec | Augsburg Christmas singing in the Golden Hall, 11:00 |
| Sun 20 Dec | Last weekend angel show, 18:00 |
| Wed 23 Dec | Closing evening, the angels come down to the town hall door at 18:00, market open until 21:30 |
| Thu 24 Dec | Last day, 10:00 to 14:00, with the last Advent window at 11:30 |
| From Fri 25 Dec | Closed until next season |
The Augsburg Angel Show (Engelesspiel): When and Where to Watch
The Engelesspiel turns the whole front of the town hall into a giant Advent calendar, with 23 angels appearing in its windows on 14 nights, which makes Nuremberg’s one Christkind on one church balcony on one opening night look a bit stingy. They’re young women from Augsburg, picked for their grace, their musicality and a head for heights, and the show goes back to 1977, when the city’s tourism director dreamt it up after a painting by Hans Holbein.
What gets me is how simple it is. The square’s lights dim, the windows open one after another, there’s music from the central balcony, and all around you locals stand with their mugs and crane up at the windows. It’s old-fashioned in the best possible way, and it’s why I’d give an evening to Augsburg over any of the bigger Bavarian markets.
On show nights the square fills early, so get a drink and face the town hall before 18:00, ideally in time for the Advent window from 1 December, and then stay put.
The 23 December show is the one I’d try hardest to catch, because that night the angels come down staircases to the portal in front of the Rathaus, so instead of craning up you get them at street level, and it’s worth standing nearer the door.
The Augsburg Christmas Market, From the Rathausplatz to Moritzplatz
Once the show’s over, the rest is about 115 to 120 stalls in one continuous run from the Rathausplatz down to Moritzplatz, and for a market that pulls around a million visitors a year it’s wonderfully compact, with every part of it within about three minutes’ walk of the town hall. If you’re arriving with bags between Thursday and Saturday, the free luggage and information bus at the Merkurbrunnen by Moritzplatz is there in the afternoons and evenings from 26 November to 19 December, so you don’t have to drag a suitcase round the stalls.
The Rathausplatz (My Favourite)
With the angels right above you, this is the square to linger on, and it holds 84 stalls on little lanes with names like Sternenweg and Lebkuchenstraße, an eight-metre Christmas pyramid with a Glühwein stall built into its base, and a nativity under the big tree with large wooden figures carved in Oberammergau. The Glühwein stall at the foot of the pyramid is where I’d get my first cup.
Bring your Christmas cards, because the Himmlisches Postamt, the heavenly post office on the square, will stamp them with a postmark from Christkindl in Austria, from 10:00 to 20:00 every day except the opening day and Christmas Eve.
Plenty of the Rathausplatz stalls are food and drink, but the crafts that are here are good, and some of them are Augsburg’s own, which is where I’d spend my money.
- The yearly Augsburg tree ornament is the souvenir I’d buy, because there’s a new one every year and it’s Augsburg’s own.
- Marionettes and guardian angels make perfect sense here, in the city of the Augsburger Puppenkiste, the puppet theatre that’s been performing since 1948.
- Springerle moulds are for pressing pictures into the old aniseed biscuits, and the biscuits themselves are sold alongside.
- Hand-dipped candles from the Allgäu, made from organic wax, are the present I’d take home for anyone who’d rather have something real than another bauble.
Fuggerplatz, Martin-Luther-Platz and Maximilianstraße
The side squares are mostly about food and drink, with Kartoffelpuffer, house-distilled spirits, chestnuts and Belgian pralines, and Maximilianstraße has five charity stalls and schnapps sold in preserving jars. Nothing on them is worth leaving the Rathausplatz for, so eat your way through on the walk down to Moritzplatz and grab a jar of that schnapps as you pass.
Moritzplatz and the Children’s Market
Down by St. Moritz is the children’s Christmas market, with a Christmas carousel, a witch’s house, Apfelküchle and crêpes, and it’s where I’d take kids first, in the afternoon while it’s calm, before the square fills for the angels.
Then there’s the Märchenstraße, ten fairy-tale scenes set up in shop windows, this year telling the tale of Der Wunschvogel, with a riddle card for children, which last year you could pick up at the tourist office or the Himmlisches Postamt.
What to Eat and Drink at the Augsburg Christmas Market
The food here is Swabian, heavy and seriously good, so leave room and save the salads for January.
- Dampfnudel comes first for me, a steamed sweet dumpling about the size of your palm, drowned in vanilla sauce, and you’ll see locals tucking into them.
- Schupfnudeln are finger-shaped potato noodles fried with sauerkraut and bacon, and a plate of them will see you through the whole angel show.
- Käsespätzle and Reibedatschi, cheesy egg noodles and crisp potato pancakes, are what I’d have for a late lunch before the show.
- Rahmfleck is the Swabian take on Flammkuchen, a thin flatbread baked with cream, and it’s the one to split over that first cup at the pyramid.
- Chocolate chestnuts and Baumstriezel, the sugary rolled cake baked on a spit, are for after the angels.
- Winemaker’s Glühwein, red or white, and beer punch are at the stall on the Steingasse, and there’s Augsburg’s own Christmas liqueur and gin as well.
Glühwein was €3.50 to €4 a cup last year, against €5 to €6 in Munich and €4.50 to €5 in Nuremberg, so a round of four here cost about what three did in Munich, which makes Augsburg the place I’d do my serious Glühwein drinking on a Bavarian trip.
How I’d Spend a Day in Augsburg in December
Mornings belong to the Fuggerei, about eight minutes from the town hall, a settlement built in 1521 where about 150 people still live for €0.88 a year in rent plus three daily prayers, which has to be the best deal in Germany. It’s €8 to get in, with the museum and a wartime bunker included, and it’s open from 09:00 to 18:00.
Then I’d head back to the town hall for the Golden Hall, which reopened on 28 September after about two years of renovation, so this is the first Advent in a while you can walk into all that gold, daily from 10:00 to 18:00. If your dates line up, catch a Christmas concert in the Golden Hall, with the Domsingknaben on 5 and 6 December or the Christmas singing on 13 December.
After lunch I’d wander the stalls while they’re calm, with the children’s market and the fairy-tale windows if you’ve got kids, and then be back on the square for the Advent window, the angels at 18:00 and the market until it closes.
On a night with no show, I’d swap the angels for the Christmas Garden light trail at the zoo, with timed slots and last entry at 20:00, though it’s closed on 30 November and 1, 7 and 8 December.
Is the Augsburg Christmas Market Open on Christmas Eve?
Yes, from 10:00 to 14:00, the same as Munich, and it’s the market’s last day.
The better evening of Christmas week is the one before, with the closing show and the late opening, so I’d make the 23rd my last night in town.
On the 24th itself, the last Advent window opens at 11:30, and then it’s last-minute shopping until the market closes. The Fuggerei and the Christmas Garden are both closed that day, but the Christmas Garden opens again on the 25th and 26th, from 17:00 to 21:00, once the market has gone.
How Cold Is Augsburg in December?
December in Augsburg has an average high of 5.6°C and a low of −0.3°C, and by the time the angels appear it feels more like −4.1°C. Rain or snow falls on 44% of December days.
Snow is the part to hope for, because our snow odds study finds it on the ground on 24% of market days, the same as Munich and well above Nuremberg’s 16%, with a 39% chance that a weekend trip sees some. Angels in gold over a white Rathausplatz is the version of this evening I’d wish on anyone, so bring gloves and a hat for the 18:00 show, because you’ll be standing still for it.
Augsburg or Munich? Day Trips From Augsburg
If you’re choosing between the two, I’d do both. Munich has more markets and more to see, but Augsburg has the angels, and the trains make it an easy call.
It’s 26 minutes by ICE, with around 60 direct trains a day, or about 40 minutes on a regional train you don’t need to book, and the last train back to Munich leaves at 23:35 on the November timetable, so I’d do Munich by day and come to Augsburg for the evening.
Stay the night in Augsburg and it works the other way round, with three more markets close enough for a day out, and Ulm is the one I’d pick because it’s the quickest and the least hassle.
- Ulm is 39 minutes by direct ICE, with about 45 trains a day, for the Ulm Christmas market under the Minster’s huge spire, which runs until 22 December.
- Nuremberg is about an hour and ten minutes on the handful of direct ICEs, or nearer two hours with a change, and the direct ones may only be running while engineering works divert them, until 12 December, so check before you plan on one.
- Stuttgart is an hour and 22 minutes by direct ICE, for one of the biggest markets in Germany, though with about 3.5 million visitors last year the Stuttgart Christmas market is a far bigger crush than Augsburg’s.
Is the Augsburg Christmas Market Worth It?
Yes, and if you’re already in Munich it’s the easiest win of the whole trip, half an hour on the train for 23 angels in the windows and a cheaper cup in your hand. I’d still give it a night of its own, so the Fuggerei and the Golden Hall get a proper morning instead of a rush.
Make it a Friday or a Sunday, with the Fuggerei and the Golden Hall by day, a Dampfnudel at teatime and the square for the Advent window, and stay for the angels at six.
