The story
Aachen Christmas Market in Aachen
Aachen's Christmas market grew from a small 1970s Printen Market around the Elisenbrunnen fountain into a larger market centred on the Markt square and Katschhof, now drawing an estimated 1.5 million visitors. Its identity centres on Aachener Printen, a fifteenth-century spiced gingerbread biscuit with legally protected geographical-indication status, meaning only Aachen-area bakers may use the name.
Aachen's modern Christmas market dates only to the 1970s, beginning as a comparatively small Printen Market clustered around the Elisenbrunnen fountain before a later expansion moved the market to the Markt square and the adjoining Katschhof, along with the small connecting streets between them, a relocation that transformed a modest local market into one of the larger Christmas markets in western Germany, now drawing an estimated one and a half million visitors annually.