The centre of Siegen was almost completely destroyed in a bombing raid on December 16th 1944 but the old town shows still today a nicestreets and houses.
Only a handful of slate-roofed, half-timbered buildings remained unscathed in a triangle between the Löhrstraße, Oberer Metzgerstraße and Hainstraße streets, where the butcher's and tanner's guilds of the middle ages had been established. Dating from the 18th century, these houses were lovingly and carefully restored in the 1980s and, as an enclosed ensemble, form a jewel box of urban architecture today. The half-timbered buildings, the slate roofs and facades and the cobblestones are typical characteristics. Pfarrer-Ochse- Square next to the Church of St. Mary (Marienkirche), where the annual Old Town Festival takes place every September, is particularly attractive.
The Old Town is part of the City Tour.