Esslingen - Town Church

(Local Name: Stadtkirche) In the Marktplatz stands the twin-towered Stadtkirche (dedicated to St Dionysius; Protestant), built on eighth century foundations in the transitional style of the 13th-14th centuries, with a High Gothic choir. It has a fine interior, excavations in which in 1960-63 brought to light remains of earlier churches, a crypt and a hut of the Urnfield culture of the 13th-11th centuries B.C.; the remains can be seen by visitors.

Opposite the choir of the church is the old Speyerer Pfleghof, a former hospice now occupied by the Sektkellerei Kessler, the oldest Sekt firm in Germany, founded in 1826.