The narrowest street in the world – or is it?

The narrowest street in the world - or is it?
Photo: Wikipedia

Reutlingen is a town about 22 miles south of Stuttgart and it is famous for one street, the Spreuerhofstraße, because it’s the narrowest street in the world.  In order to be called a street, a lane has to be wide enough for somebody to walk through and you can just about do that as the Street is still 31 cm at its narrowest part. That’s why it was officially declared the narrowest street in the world in 2007.

Since last year, however, there is a problem: one of the houses alongside has rotten wood, which is pushing into the lane. If it pushes any further the lane is not passable and therefore not a street anymore. If it gets demolished the lane will be too wide for its title.

It should be repaired but since 2012 nobody wants to take responsibility for the repairs or, more importantly, the costs. Last year it was said that the wood could last another year, but what then ….

Edit: 2 weeks after I wrote this post, the town Reutlingen bought the house and was going to start work on it.

Whether that has happened I could not find out, so, if you won’t get the chance to see it  or if it does lose its title, have a virtual walk along the street with this video:

EDIT 2017: I found two since then, one from 2014, the next from 2016, both showing the house gradually being looked after.


4 thoughts on “The narrowest street in the world – or is it?”

    • I don’t know, I could imagine lots of screaming children running up and down. maybe not locals but tourists’ children. And I wonder if anybody ever did get stuck. That would cause some noise 🙂

      Reply

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