Explore a lovely Bavarian city that was fantastically rebuilt after WWII.
It’s hard to tell today that Würzburg, Germany, was almost completely destroyed by a 17-minute-long firebombing raid in March 1945. Würzburg sustained even more damage than the more well-known firebombed city of Dresden. Ninety percent of the city was destroyed. Over the next twenty years, Würzburg was rebuilt. It doesn’t look exactly like it did before the war, but they did a pretty good job of it.
My first stop was the Würzburg Residence (Residenz Würzburg), a grand 18th century Baroque palace and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Jana Irving The very fancy front of the palace.
Jana Irving Pictures weren’t allowed inside (even though the website says it’s okay), so continuing on to the garden.
Jana Irving The palace was severely damaged in March 1945 due to firebombing. Luckily, an American got there early in the occupation of the city and had a temporary roof constructed for the building to save what was left.
Jana Irving St. Michael Seminary Church. Love the little domes.
Jana Irving Neubaukirche (New Building Church), is part of the Old University.
Jana Irving The town center of Würzburg is fairly modern, but you can still find some old, restored buildings.
Jana Irving Neumünster (New Munster), a gorgeous Baroque Catholic church.
Jana Irving I don’t hate the modern art along the nave.
Jana Irving I love that curtain effect.
Jana Irving Cute.
Jana Irving Oberer Markt has some fancy buildings. The yellow building is the Falkenhaus, a Baroque former inn. Photos were used to reconstruct the exterior after WWII.
Jana Irving On the Marktplatz is the absolutely gorgeous Marienkapelle (Maria Chapel). Digging the red color on this church.
Jana Irving The front door is pretty awesome.
Jana Irving More Marktplatz.
Jana Irving Schustergasse, a cute street off of Marktplatz.
Jana Irving Circled back to the very stately Würzburger Dom (Würzburg Cathedral). It is the fourth largest Romanesque church in Germany. The narrow front the church is very deceiving.
Jana Irving It’s fairly large on the inside. The original stucco ceiling collapsed in 1946. They chose not to rebuild it. I think the ceiling looks like conference center carpet.
Jana Irving Fancy carving.
Jana Irving The altar area would have been much more colorful originally. None of the panels have been repainted.
Jana Irving A lovely, very white chapel.
Jana Irving Medieval painting right on the stones of the wall.
Jana Irving Medieval churches were often quite colorful. Whitewashing or plain white churches didn’t occur to much later.
Jana Irving The Grafeneckart, the oldest part of the town hall. The first mention of the tower was in 1180. I love the tree in the middle of the building. It was painted in the 16th century to replace a linden tree that fallen down in the square in front of it.
Jana Irving Heading across the Alte Mainbrücke (Old Main Bridge) where you can get wine and a brat while you stroll.
Jana Irving The bridge is a popular place to hangout apparently.
Jana Irving It does offer a great view of the castle after all.
Jana Irving Both sides of the bridge have statues of saints.
Jana Irving Took a little detour to the castle and stopped by the Deutschhauskirche (Teutonic Church).
Jana Irving The church is above a road. Good use of space.
Jana Irving After a very steep climb, I made it to the castle, Festung Marienberg (Marienberg Fortress).
Jana Irving Still climbing.
Jana Irving Most of the current castle was built during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, although the castle is much older.
Jana Irving The Scherenberg Gate.
Jana Irving The inner court is complete with its own tower keep (Bergfried) and church, Marienkirche (St. Mary).
Jana Irving A path takes you around the castle.
Jana Irving This was pretty neat, even though I had to backtrack.
Jana Irving There is a fantastic place to get views of the city behind the castle. There’s Neubaukirche again.
Jana Irving More of the town center. Like I said, great view.
Jana Irving The castle and its grounds are free to explore. The castle, itself, has two museums, as well.
Jana Irving While Würzburg is pretty modern due to WWII, there are still a ton of neat things here.
I was pretty impressed with Würzburg. The modern buildings are pretty low key, and they put a lot of work into rebuilding the historic places after the war. It’s a nice place to wander about and check out the museums. Würzburg is an easy day trip from Nuremberg.
Check out my next update where I explore the amazing Nuremberg!
or
Start at the beginning of this adventure in Zurich!
