Explorations of one extremely adorable German city.
I found Bamberg by accident. A friend and I were discussing our planned stops in Germany, and I was absentmindedly clicking on random German cities on Google Maps. Clicked on Bamberg. Saw some pictures of the city and it was not a hard decision to make a stop there.
Bamberg has been around since the 9th century and still retains much of its medieval layout. The city has survived relatively intact and somehow avoided WWII fire bombing. Because Bamberg has so many non-destroyed pre-WWII buildings (including from the medieval era), it was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1993. Bamberg deserves that credit.
My friend and I spent an entire afternoon wandering as much of the city center as possible. We pretty much covered it. Bamberg isn’t that big, but it is adorable. Even though most of the wandering happening in a 4 hour time span, this post is going to be long. Sorry, not sorry.
Jana Irving Like I said, adorable. The Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) was built right in the middle of the river.
Jana Irving The town hall dates from the 15th century, with 18th century renovations.
Jana Irving The original frescoes were restored in the 1950s. It’s amazing anything was saved during that decade.
Jana Irving Looking back at the bridge I took that first picture from.
Jana Irving A lot of color in this town.
Jana Irving Even the shopping district is cute.
Jana Irving Grand buildings in Gruner Markt.
Jana Irving Maximiliansbrunnen (Maximilian Fountain) in Maximiliansplatz.
Jana Irving Tiny colorful street.
Jana Irving I like this one.
Jana Irving Well, that’s a fancy design.
Jana Irving Near the university.
Jana Irving Back across the river.
Jana Irving The bridge on the back end of the Old Town Hall. That blue building is fantastic.
Jana Irving This town is just too cute.
Jana Irving Narrow, medieval street.
Jana Irving Traditional Bavarian restaurant.
Jana Irving The grand 13th century Bamberg Cathedral.
Jana Irving Of course, there is a palace right across the plaza from the cathedral.
Jana Irving 17th century palace on the right and the 11th century Alte Hofhaltung (Old Court) on the left.
Jana Irving The Old Court now houses a local history museum.
Jana Irving It’s a pretty cool building.
Jana Irving Leaving the Old Court, look there is the full palace.
Jana Irving Now for the cathedral, it is very Gothic.
Jana Irving The cathedral had a very interesting feature. There was an apse where a front door would normally be. The area in the front of the church served as the choir.
Jana Irving Under the choir, there was a crypt church.
Jana Irving In front of the stairs to go to the choir was this fancy tomb belonging to Heinrich II and his wife Cunigunde.
Jana Irving The high altar is gorgeous with its fancy gothicness and choir stalls.
Jana Irving The aimless wandering continued.
Jana Irving I’m glad a lot of these medieval buildings survived.
Jana Irving How cute is that?
Jana Irving Absolutely wonderful.
Jana Irving My heart.
Jana Irving And this is why I love Bamberg.
Jana Irving The cute is never ending.
Jana Irving It really is.
Jana Irving Around every corner, cute. There is so much more cute not in this post.
Jana Irving Love this town.
Jana Irving The lovely Church of Our Lady.
Jana Irving This town, I swear cannot get any more cuter.
Jana Irving I give up. This town is just too cute.
Bamberg is simply amazing. I only spent an afternoon there and I would love to go back. There are museums, other churches and even a castle that I didn’t even get to check out. I only showed a small bit of the old town of Bamberg. There is much more to see!
Check out my next update where I will be visiting Würzburg!
or
Start at the beginning of this adventure in Zurich!
