Franconia is always my favorite area in Germany and Würzburg is one of my many favorite cities in this region. The city itself is very nice with many beautiful old buildings and the Marienburg fortress on the hill can easily capture your imagination of romantic Germany – actually Würzburg is a starting point of the famous “Romantische Strasse”. However romantic can not save this city from the war, the city was almost completely destroyed during the WWII including the WHS in this city, the Residenz.

Würzburg residenz is considered as a masterpiece of baroque palace designed by Balthasar Neumann and built by yellow sandstone making this palace glows like a shinning moon in the dusk. In my opinion it seems that the late evening is the best time to enjoy the magnificent feeling of this palace. The Residenz and its square are huge compared to other places in the town making the Residenz look more striking. The garden is also marvelous with many lovely flowers and statues.

However, the palace’s inside gives the feeling of mix. The grand staircase is truly gorgeous with the fresco masterpiece by Tiepolo, Court chapel is just amazing, the green room is worth for special noticed, and about 10 lovely rooms of baroque and rococo styles which can be seen in many German baroque palaces like Schönbrunn or Sanssouci. After seeing of those mentioned, the palace becomes a long series of empty rooms with displays some ridiculous amount of fine art (OK the exhibition about Würzburg city after the war and its restoration work is quite interesting). I expected German or Bavarian government to restore the whole building to its former glory for both outside and inside, but my idea is not true. It is not surprised that I spend only 40 minutes to explore this big palace! (What’s a record) and not much tourists as I expected (I saw many tourist buses but they only come to see the exterior and garden – they are wise).

It’s really hard to conclude my idea about this place, the exterior and the garden is truly great, some part of interior are very good, but the less of palace are unconvincing for the WHS status.