Researchers are excavating a unique mass grave from the Thirty Years’ War in the St. Johannis district. They hope to learn more about how people lived and died in the 17th century.
At first glance, the area in the St. Johannis district of Nuremberg looks like any construction site in the Free State. Only when you push aside the barriers with the privacy tarpaulins that were put up to protect against uninvited visitors do you see them: the small white tents at the lowest point of the excavation pit. They reveal that research is being carried out here, not construction. Beneath the tents lie the remains of hundreds of people who died of the plague in the 17th century. It is the largest plague grave in Germany, perhaps even Europe.