Rathausplatz - Town Hall Square (former Schlossplatz)

At the town hall square, evidence of all phases of the old town's development can be seen. A window into the underground beneath the square allows the view into the medieval vaulted cellar of the Württemberg castle which once stood here. The town hall heralded a new beginning in the 1950s. The terrace of the square offers a beautiful view of today's recreational landscape along the Rems. Richard Deacon's large abstract sculpture symbolizes the maze of winding alleys and streets in the old town. As a representative of modernity, the contemporary building of the "Marktdreieck" (Market Triangle) forms an exciting contrast to the old town hall and the renovated half-timbered facades of the former barns in Scheuerngasse, which have now been converted into residential and commercial buildings.

Town Hall Pharmacy (Kurze Straße 28)

This building was built in 1643 on the ruins after the fire of 1634. It served as a pharmacy from 1650 until recently. The envious head on the corner with the inscription OFFICIN. PHARMAC. BECHER dates from the time of Matthias Becher (1686 - 1708), (official pharmacist) and mayor. The classicist lintel towards Zwerchgasse with the inscription J. F. D. recalls a renovation by Jakob Friedrich Demmler, pharmacist 1792 - 1824. The half-timbered house with ornamental paintings in the original colours was exposed in 1980. Grey painted half-timbered houses were considered particularly elegant. The pharmacist's garden near the Nikolauskirche (see station 7) also belonged to the respective owner of this pharmacy from 1685 to 1999.

Town Hall with Town Hall Square (Kurze Straße 33)

On the grounds of the town hall built in 1959 stood the castle of the Counts of Württemberg, which dates from the end of the 13th century and burnt down in 1634. There is only an inaccurate representation of this from 1553, and only the large cellar bears witness to its existence. Today's town hall with the administration building and the separate conference room for the municipal council has two of its six storeys below the level of the town hall square due to its hillside location above the Rems. From here you have a wonderful view of the park landscape of Erleninsel and Talaue. This square was still known as Schlossplatz (Palace Square) until the 19th century. In 1651 the manorial "Large Fruit Box" (barn for the collection of taxes in the form of farm produce) was built on top of the old castle cellar. In 1844, the wall that once surrounded the castle was demolished, and in 1874 a town hall was built here. This was later demolished for today's town hall. Only the large cellar remains of the 14th century castle. and today it's a popular venue in the heart of the old town and is available for hire by private individuals.

The memorial to the victims of the World Wars on the wall of the conference room was created by the sculptor Fritz Mehlis (1913-1982).

The striking sculpture by artist Richard Deacon (*1949 Wales) "This is not a story" from 1992 shows the abstract-interlaced structure of an uninterrupted loop. With his sculpture, Deacon merges the overlapping historical layers and the winding, connections of the streets of Waiblingen's old town. The name "This is not a story" is based on a novel by the French writer and philosopher of the Enlightenment Denise Diderot (1713 - 1784).

The Market Triangle

The market triangle: creative-avant-garde construction method or architectural sin? Opposite is the „market triangle“ built in 1976 by Stuttgart architect Wilfried Beck-Erlang (1924 - 2002) which with its coloured nested hexagons offers an exciting architectural dialogue with the topography of the old town. The building is a reinforced concrete skeleton construction with an upwards decreasing floor area. The triangular ground plan, in which there is no front or rear side, adapts optimally to the given building area. The façade is divided by vertical struts based on the surrounding half-timbered houses. With green and blue as complementary colours of the neighbouring half-timbered buildings, the cladding made of coated aluminium sheets follows a special colour concept. From Scheuerngasse it is easy to see how the modern building with its façade design blends into the existing surroundings with the old half-timbered houses. This administration building houses municipal offices, shops and the municipal library. The useable space of the municipal library was doubled during conversion and energy-efficient renovation (reopening in 2011). Originally, this was the site of centuries old buildings in great need of renovation, the preservation of which would have been very expensive. There have always been two contrasting views regarding the restructuring concept, reflecting the contemporary Zeitgeist. On the one hand, the town planners wanted to revive the desolate old town and upgrade the city centre with a modern new building marking change and a commitment to progress This was countered by opinions demanding a return to the renovation and preservation of the old buildings. From this point of view, the new market triangle was seen as an urban developmental sin that defaced the cityscape. The market triangle as a child of its time has now become part of the city's history and is almost timeless due to its peculiarity. Since 2014 it has had the status of a registered cultural monument of the 1970s.

Former Guesthouse Traube (Marketplace 6)

The first pharmacy in the city had been established (1647) at a different address for more than 100 years before it was moved to the "Zacherhaus" (Marktplatz 9) in 1760. After demolition in 1791/92, master butcher Jakob Friedrich Häberle and his wife Barbara had today's baroque plaster building with mansard roof constructed in its current form. At the house entrance, formerly located in the middle of the street, you can still see the keystone with the initials I.F.H. (Jakob Friedrich Häberle) and B.H (Barbara Häberle), the year 1791 and the Lamb of God with the cross flag as house sign. At the northeast corner of the house there is a remnant of the old castle wall. From 1842 the late Baroque building was put to a new use. After the marriage of the widow Häberle with the"food landlord" or caterer Mangold, a"food restaurant" was set up in addition to the butcher's shop. This existed until the 1980s as „Gasthaus Traube“ (Grape Restaurant) and even today houses a gourmet restaurant in time honoured fashion.