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Market place in the old city quarters of Würzburg
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Swimming prohibited!
Surrounded by vineyards, Würzburg lies in the heart of the Franconian wine region. Even Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and fertility would have felt at home here. Much like the students in Würzburg felt when the university was founded. An abbot in Würzbug once wrote: „The students of Würzburg are wild lads“. What prompted him to make that statement were virtual hedonistic orgies that were rife at the time– drinking, swims, love affairs, gambling, intoxication, noise and cacophony. It even destroyed academic successes at the university. Pretty normal circumstances, if you come to think of it today. At that time however, the university was closed, a couple of years after its inception. Naturally when it was reopened, stringent new regulations were clamped in place. A host of activities were proscribed: Drunkenness, gambling, swimming in the Main and carrying weapons to the lectures.
The good genie from the bottle
The small villages on the outskirts of Würzburg celebrate their wine festivals from April to November. The smell of grilling rises from half-timbered houses, bent against the onslaught of the wind. Musicians give their all on stages, and the village folk soak in the merriment with wine and „Gerupft em“ – that’s Camembert. As the sun dips low and casts long shadows, the high spirits rise even further. As the oldies sway to the music, the younger ones crowd on the dance floor. By the way: you can recognize the best Franconian wine by the flat, big-bellied bottles that they come in, the so-called „Bocksbeutel“.
A Viennese in Würzburg
It’s not just wine lovers, who flock to Würzburg, but also lovers of classical music. Thousands of visitors from all over the world make it a point not to miss the Mozart festival in Würzburg. But in spite of all this fanfare, Mozart had actually no personal association to Würzburg. It all began with an evening of music in the year 1921 at the grand emperor’s hall in the princely palace. At the end of the evening, the conductor, overwhelmed by the ornate stucco and lavish surroundings said: "I only needed to trace a certain piece of ornamentation with my baton in the air, and that was enough for a union between sound, architecture and color". Such a profound inspiration for creation couldn’t just be passed up. It soon led to the founding of the Mozart music festival. Every year the music of the genius fills the royal grounds and the baroque palace for three weeks. Young and old lounge around on the small lawn patches between blooming flower beds, and soak in the sounds and notes of the young Viennese.
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Dimitar Borisov from Bulgaria advises first years to get started early:
"It is not at all easy to study here but one gets an excellent education" (German)
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Anne Gemminger from France talks about the Africa Festival in Würzburg:
'You can try African food, listen to African music, and get to know their culture better.' (German)
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| Further Information
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