Wurzburg, Germany

This is Wurzburg, Germany as viewed from the Fortress Marienberg.
Today we took a daytrip to the City of Wurzburg. It is a city along the Romantic Road in Germany. It is the capital of Lower Franconia, with a lot of baroque influenced archetectureand is famous as the center of Franconian wine production. The surrounding hills are covered in vineyards and the Main River flows through town. In WW2, 90% of the city was devastated in a 20 minute long raid on March 16, 1945. Until last year, the US had a military base in this city. Nearly every building has been restored. We had a really good day despite the really cold weather. We were just very glad there was no rain.

We started the day at the UNESCO World Cultural HEritage Site, the Residence Palace. This is a view of the front of the very large Palace.


This is the Fountain of Franconia in front of the Residenz Palace. This fountain celebrated the Bishop getting the boot in 1814 and the city celebrating being a part of Franconia. The fountain celebrates the artistic genius of Franconia with statues of 3 great hometown boys, (a medieval bard, the woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider, and the Renaissance painter Matthias Grunewald).

Lily and Lia at fountain.

We were able to tour the Palace with an English guide. It was very interesting but we couldn't take pictures. The Palace was built in 1720-1744 as the new residence for the Prince-Bishops. We toured the grand staircase, the white Hall, the Imperial Hall and the Garden hall. All of these rooms were not destroyed during the war. The rest of the palace was pretty much destroyed. In 1944 they removed all of the furniture and decor from the rooms and took tons of pictures. They used these to reconstruct the Imperial chambers like the Hall of Mirrors. Of note was the beautiful ceiling frescoes (paintings) in all of these original rooms, especially the grand staircase. They were very beautiful.
This is the inside of the elaborate Hofkirche (church) at the palace.


We then walked through town and saw several sights and then walked up to the Fortress.
This is the back view of the Dom St. Kilian (Cathedral) of Wurzburg. It dates to 11th century and the interior burned in 1945. It was reconstructed. It is the 4th largest Romanesque cathedral in Germany and is home to artifacts from many centuries.

This is the front of the Dom.

This is the front altar inside the Dom.


This is the Marienkapelle and the Falkenhaus. The Marienkapelle or St. Mary's Chapel built in 1377-1479 and restored after 1945. It is considered the finest Late Gothic building in Wurzburg. The Falkenhaus is the tourist info center which was formerly a guesthouse with stucco facade from 1751.

This is a view of the altar inside the Marienkapelle.

We next found the rathaus that had a small room with pictures of the town right after the 1945 allied bombing which happened just 6 weeks before the end of the war. Then we witnessed a re-enactment of some military thing. We don't know what it was about. They were dressed in uniforms and they paraded down the main street. We didn't follow but the uniforms were neat. Here is a picture.


Statue of St. Kilian on the Alte Mainbrucke, the Old Main Bridge. It is lined with statues of saints as it crosses over the Main River.

The hike up to the Fortress was steep. Lia threw a major tantrum. She did not want to do it. She was cold and sick of walking. But we trudged on and she soon got over it. I am really serious when I say the kids enjoy all of these day trips and all of the old stuff. The Fortress is called the Festung Marienberg. It is huge. It was where the Prince-Bishops lived from the mid 13th century until the construction of the Residenz palace. The inside rooms and museums were all closed so we just walked around the outside. Here are some pictures of the Fortress.







We capped our day by eating at the Alte Mainmuhle restaurant. John and I were excited to get fresh fish. We were quite shocked when it came to the table like this.

Yummy!