Editing Tübingen (section)

==Main sights==
[[File:TuebingenNeckar.jpg|right|thumb|265px|View from the tower of Stiftskirche]]In central Tübingen, the Neckar divides briefly into two streams, forming the elongated ''[[Neckarinsel, Tübingen|Neckarinsel]]'' (Neckar Island), famous for its ''Platanenallee'' with high [[plane tree]]s, which are around 200 years old, and for the National Socialist-themed memorial to the composer and [[Volkslied]] collector, [[Friedrich Silcher]].<ref name=":0" />{{rp|33}} 

Pedestrians can reach the island via stairs on the narrow ends leading down from a bridge spanning the Neckar, and by a smaller foot bridge nearer the middle of the island. During the summer, the ''Neckarinsel'' is occasionally the venue for concerts, plays, and literary readings. The row of historical houses across one side of the elongated ''Neckarinsel'' is called the ''[[Neckarfront]]'' and includes the house with adjoining tower where poet and philosopher [[Friedrich Hölderlin]] spent the last 36 years of his life, as he struggled with mental instability.<ref>{{cite book |last=Warminski |first=Andrzej |title=Readings in Interpretation: Hölderlin, Hegel, Heidegger |date=1987 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |series=Theory and History of Literature |volume=26 |page=209}}</ref> [[File:Baden-Württemberg Tübingen 03.jpg|thumb|265px|right|Tübingen city hall]]
[[File:TuebingenNeckarfront3.jpg|thumb|265px|right|Neckar and Hölderlinturm]]
[[File:TuebingenStiftskirche.jpg|thumb|265px|right|Stiftskirche]]
[[File:Tübingen street art.jpg|thumb|265px|right|Tübingen street art near Blaue Brücke]]

Tübingen's ''Altstadt'' (old town) survived [[World War II]] due to the city's lack of heavy industry. The result is a growing domestic [[tourism]] business as visitors come to wander through one of the few completely intact historic ''Altstädte'' in Germany. The highlights of Tübingen include its crooked cobblestone lanes, narrow-stair alleyways picking their way through the hilly terrain, streets lined with canals, and well-maintained traditional [[Timber framing|half-timbered]] houses.

Old city landmarks include the city hall on Markt Square and the Hohentübingen Castle, now part of the University of Tübingen. The central landmark is the ''[[Stiftskirche (Tübingen)|Stiftskirche]]'' (Collegiate Church). Along with the rest of the city, the Stiftskirche was one of the first to convert to [[Martin Luther]]'s [[protestant]] church. As such, it maintains (and carefully defends) several "[[Roman Catholic]]" features, such as [[patron saints]]. Below the ''Rathaus'' is a quiet, residential street called the ''Judengasse'', the former [[Jewish]] neighborhood of Tübingen until the city's Jews were expelled in 1477. On the street corner is a plaque commemorating the fate of Tübingen's [[Jews]].

The centre of Tübingen is the site of weekly and seasonal events, including regular market days on the ''Holzmarkt'' by the Stiftskirche and the ''Marktplatz'' by the Rathaus, an [[outdoor cinema]] in winter and summer, festive autumn and Christmas markets and (formerly) Europe's largest Afro-Brazilian festival.

Students and tourists also come to the Neckar River in the summer to visit beer gardens or go boating in ''Stocherkähne'', the Tübingen equivalent of [[Oxford]] and [[Cambridge]] [[punt (boat)|punts]], only slimmer. A ''Stocherkahn'' carries up to 20 people. On the second Thursday of June, all ''Stocherkahn'' punts take part in a major race, the ''[[Stocherkahnrennen]]''.

[[Bebenhausen Abbey]] lies in the village of Bebenhausen, a district of Tübingen. A subdivision of the pilgrimage route known as the [[Way of St. James]] starts here and runs through Tübingen.