Introducing Regensburg
Today we’re going to take a jaunt around a very old city and give you a bit of a feel for the place, a sort of general overview if you like. I lived there for seven years, so I got to know it quite well.
Regensburg lies about smack-dab in the middle of the state of Bavaria, which is the largest state in Germany, occupying its southeast corner and bordering on the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland. It’s easy to find even on maps where it is unmarked, because it sits at the northernmost bend of the Danube river.
Founded by Celts around the time of Christ’s birth, recorded civilisation began later when the Romans built one of their square camps there in 179 AD. All around the Old City are remnants from that time and every era since - including a stretch of Roman wall inside a parking building, a gate and watchtower built into a more recent hotel, and a fortified corner behind McDonald’s. The Roman camp area still forms the heart of the Old City, which spread out from there. In 1135 work began on a bridge across the Danube. Completed in 1146, it was one of the wonders of its time, and is still in use today. Back then it opened up all sorts of trade routes between northern and southern Europe, because it was the only crossing of its kind for a great distance.
In the centuries that followed, the city expanded beyond the original Roman camp, and new walls were built around the west, south and east, with the river on the north side. In 1779 it had outgrown these walls also, and the local royalty ordered the old walls pulled down. Wide green parks were laid out in the space they left behind. Today, these parks form the edge of the Old City district, and any map will show you the roughly semicircular shape meeting the Danube from the south.
Within this area are many hundreds of ancient houses which have stood there for centuries and seen some very significant events. I lived in one that was 800 years old, and its basement is said to be up to 1000 years old. It has high ceilings and massive stone walls that are two feet thick in places - a very practical thing to keep the apartments warm in winter and cool in summer. The walls are angled, and sometimes the floors are uneven, but it’s been standing so long it’s not about to collapse now. Many of the houses have inner courtyards, accessed by wide passageways from the front door: parking spots for the carriages of old, and the horses were kept in ground-floor stables now used for storage or converted into apartments.
Narrow cobblestoned streets provide a challenge to vehicles, if vehicles are permitted at all - much of the city is off-limits to traffic except for residents. Bicycles, on the other hand, enjoy a high preference as the mode of transport around the mostly-flat city area. Crooked lanes, high towers, quaint windows are found at every juncture. The towers were a sign of wealth in the Middle Ages - back then, they didn’t even use the rooms thus constructed. It’s a different story now, of course, as the central city is a sought-after address. Today, the population is around 150,000, of which up to 25,000 are students at its universities. I should also tell you that Regensburg has the highest density of pubs and restaurants per capita in all of Germany - more than 400 in total. Another time, I’ll tell you more about what you can expect from the best of them.
And so the first thing to do, should you come to Regensburg, is to walk: along the riverbanks, across the famous old bridge, around its ring of parks, and through its antique little streets with curious buildings at every turn.
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