First published: 03/12/21.

Matejicek 2.5

Regensburg

Regensburg (Inscribed)

Regensburg by Matejicek

Regensburg is evaluated lukewarmly in our community. Maybe Regensburg really is a collection of monuments without OUV, but it belongs to few well-preserved German towns after WWII destruction. Well, I would not call it intact, because there are several modern constructions and re-constructions in the core, but still the town looks nice, the river with islands is very valuable addition to its appearance, and from the stone bridge, one can observe most of vertical monuments of the town including Cathedral and medieval tower-houses.

My evaluation is fairly positive for Regensburg. Maybe I am positively biased, because for Czechia, Regensburg, which is located not far from Czechia, is a fine example of features, which we do not have (Roman monuments) or which are already gone or almost disappeared (Tower houses, gothic houses facades, large early-medieval complexes). Furthermore, Regensburg has quite prominent place in the history of Czechia as the source of Western/Southern culture and religion.

I have visited the site already 3 times. Last time, I did a day trip from Prague by train (one way - 4 hours) in November 2021. Regensburg is a small version of Prague: it has river with an old stone bridge, a gothic cathedral, and picturesque squares. The stone bridge has been reconstructed a couple of years ago, but it looks quite sterile to me. Cathedral is pretty nice, but nothing exceptional taking into account that it is a result of extensive reconstructions to gothic style. I like St. Emmeram with its history and St. Jacob with its superb Romanesque portal with dragons and creatures much more. In general, what I enjoyed during my visits the most is that, if you are careful enough, you can recognize hundreds or even thousand years old stones and construction in almost every single church and house in the center. Even Cathedral contains its Romanesque Eselsturm. Thus I could find quite a lot of medieval houses with preserved facades, which almost did not survived in the rest of Central Europe. The number of tower houses is exceptional - PHOTO (we have only very few of them in Prague, and there are more typical for Italy).

However, it was very disappointing and I cannot give Regensburg more stars that one of the prominent structure, which is praised in its OUV justifications, has been declared as the part of crazy Danube limes WHS: Porta Praetoria! Thus the OUV of Regensburg has been diluted by this "epochal" act.

All in all, Regensburg is quite nice historical town with hidden and also obvious treasures such as small sausages with sauerkraut. However, one-two days are enough to explore all of them.

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