Regensburg

Regensburg: storia e carattere

Regensburg, founded as the Roman legionary camp Castra Regina in AD 179 under Marcus Aurelius at the confluence of the Danube and the Regen, is one of Germany's oldest cities. Capital of the Duchy of Bavaria from the 8th century and later a free imperial city, it hosted the Perpetual Diet of the Holy Roman Empire from 1663 to 1806, making it the political centre of the Reich. The Altstadt and Stadtamhof, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2006, preserve one of central Europe's densest concentrations of medieval and Renaissance architecture: 13th to 14th-century patrician house-towers, the Steinerne Brücke of 1146, the Gothic cathedral of St Peter begun in 1273 and the Thurn und Taxis palace. For travellers with a dog, Regensburg is one of Germany's easiest cities: a compact pedestrian Altstadt, dog-tolerant Bavarian Wirtshaus culture by default, Spitalgarten and Historische Wurstkuchl terraces directly on the Danube, and 5-minute access to the off-leash-tolerated riverside lawns of Jahninsel. Direct ICE trains to Munich in 1h30, Nuremberg 1h05, Leipzig 4h.