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The Marienberg palace towers high above Würzburg
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Dogs that leap out of pictures
A small dog looks over a balustrade at a group of tourists, who dutifully follow their guide through the Episcopal palace grounds. The tourist guide comes to a stop, notices the dog and warns his audience: "You probably think that the dog will leap on to you at any moment – but don’t worry, it’s an illusion, all of that is painted!". The dog is a creation of the Venetian painter, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. He designed the frescoes in the hallway of the princely palace of Würzburg, which Emperor Napoleon ridiculed as the "most beautiful parsonage of Europe". The UNESCO was much more realistic and declared the princely Episcopal palace with its many frescoes a world heritage site.
Drinking wine is praying
The regular tolling of the church bells belongs as much to the city as the good Franconian wine in the glass. "Boozing on wine is a sin, drinking wine is praying" – the residents of Würzburg are a god-fearing people in every aspect. The history of the vineyards is at least as old as the history of the city itself. And that one is very long indeed.
Würzburg has been an Episcopal city for more than 1300 years. In the early days, the religious bishops used to rule from the palace that raged over the lowly subjects on the Marienburg. But by the beginning of the 18th century, the bishops supposedly had had enough. They were sick of life at such a high altitude, between stone cold walls. They commissioned Balthasar Neumann, to design a magnificently lavish residence for them. The result was the pompous princely Episcopal palace that glitters like a diamond on the green belt. The high priests didn’t just build castles for themselves, but also churches for the common folk: today numerous red, elaborately ornamented church spires tower up from among the sea of houses in the center of the city.
Würzburg today
The baroque ambience of the present day Würzburg owes its presence much more to the residents than to the church. On March 16, 1945, bombs of the Royal Air Force reduced more than 90 percent of the city to ashes. Instead of despairing, the residents of Würzburg promptly set about rebuilding most of the destruction. Today exquisite stucco works and facades enchant the hordes of tourists, who begin their sightseeing tour through Würzburg along the street called the "Romantische Strasse".
Source of Wealth
Unlike the present, hardly anybody could afford to travel through the region to slake their wanderlust, in earlier times. Travelling on the „Alte Fernstrasse“ to do trade was an uncomfortable experience too. In those days, the river Main posed an almost insurmountable obstacle, only at a couple of places was it accessible. One of these was the ford at the present-day Würzburg. It wasn’t long before artisans and traders moved into the strategic area, to offer their services and wares to passing travelers and ships. Today you don’t see traders wading through the water with their trousers legs rolled up, but trade and craft are still the two important motors of the economy of Würzburg.
License to print money
Money is not just to be earned in Würzburg, but it’s also printed here: banknotes of all kinds of countries, as well as newspapers such as the "New York Times" are printed with the help of Würzburg printing presses and machines. And much to the disappointment of forgers, these machines are not delivered to just anybody.
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Dimitar Borisov from Bulgaria on Würzburg
"Würzburg is a very beautiful city and there are a lot of young people around" (German)
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Xuehua Wang from China was very excited about going to Würzburg:
'It is really a beautiful city with vineyards and a fortress. I am very impressed.' (German)
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| Further Information
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