Regensburg – City of 1000 Historic Buildings

The architectural ensemble of "Old Town Regensburg with Stadtamhof"

This architectural ensemble is registered in the list of World Heritage sites, but even before it was nominated for this list, it was under preservation order. The area corresponds to Regensburg's size after the last medieval city expansion in 1320.

The city represents urban continuity from the ancient world and early high Middle Ages, through to the present. At a very early stage, Regensburg developed unique architectural stone characteristics, unusual for a location north of the Alps. This style includes the city wall, religious and public buildings, and also the established form of Regensburg's private houses. Many private houses have been preserved, mostly Romanesque and Early Gothic styles. This means that the medieval town centre presents a completeness and authenticity which is extraordinary for north of the Alps. The most important architectural monuments, such as the cathedral, the town hall, and the Romanesque and Early Gothic church buildings, still stand in the midst of the urban townscape in its original state.

North of the Alps we find no comparison for the Romanesque and Early Gothic residential buildings in Regensburg. Secular medieval architecture can be experienced here like nowhere else, except for a few cities in northern and central Italy. The phenomenon of house chapels belonging to city patricians makes Regensburg's medieval private houses completely unique, even when compared to Italian cities.

For a very long time, Regensburg held a high political significance as a place of residence and parliament. You can still see this in the city's layout: the cathedral precinct, the convents and monasteries, the courts of the cathedral rulers and for visiting bishops and abbots, the palaces of dukes, kings and emperors, and the town hall where representatives of the city and the Holy Roman Empire came together.

The palace belonging to the Dukes of Thurn and Taxis is still a ducal residence in Regensburg - and one of the largest inhabited in Europe.

Within its walls, Regensburg was shaped by the coexistence of the Protestant imperial city on the one hand, and the Catholic territories on the other, who were directly subject to the Emperor. The architectural consequences of this situation are very significant for the whole area of the former Holy Roman Empire.

The Heart of our Heritage

Regensburg possesses the largest cohesive collection of Romanesque and Gothic architecture north of the Alps

The collection of original Romanesque and Gothic architecture is unique to Regensburg. Its old town is the only remaining large medieval city in all of Germany.

The interrelation of public buildings, private residences, tradesmen's houses, and important churches, convents and monasteries creates an authentic image of the architectural concept of medieval city culture. The large number of preserved Romanesque and Gothic patrician towers and large private residential complexes with family towers are an excellent example for a type of building seen nowhere else north of the Alps in this density and clarity.

Regensburg was Medieval South Germany's most important centre for architecture

Because of its economical and political significance in the early and high Middle Ages, Regensburg became a key location for town planning north of the Alps.
In the early Middle Ages, Regensburg's architecture had a permanent effect on town planning north of the Alps. This is true of the many exemplary architectural constructions, whether religious or secular, and also of the development of the city as a whole. The fortification of the western expansion between 917 and 920 is the first documented post-classical city expansion north of the Alps. The large Romanesque and Gothic church buildings and monastery complexes are exceptional artistic accomplishments for their time. The churches of the mendicant religious orders of the Dominicans and the Conventual Franciscans are very early architectural examples of changing religious beliefs in the late Middle Ages. The late Gothic town hall complex shows an excellent construction of all the functional parts of a medieval town hall. The Stone Bridge, built between 1135 and 1146, is an absolutely unique medieval feat of engineering, and for a long time it was the only walled Danube crossing between Ulm and Vienna.

Regensburg's collection of historic buildings represents politics and religion together - unique in Germany

Political representation

Up until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Regensburg was one of the most important locations for European history.
Caesar Marcus Aurelius founded the legionary camp Castra Regina in the year 179 and so created a strong military outpost at the Danube's northernmost point.

Later, the city was the main court of the Bavarian Dukes up until 788, an important palace location for the kingdom of the East Franks, the capital city of the Bavarian Dukes in the 10th century, preferred congress centre for empire meetings in the southeast of the Holy Roman Empire, and also the seat of the Empire's permanent parliament from 1663 until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. All of these phases left traces that can be seen and experienced today:  the Carolingian palaces at the old cornmarket, and near St. Emmeram's church, the courts of the convents, bishops and lords from the 10th century, the parliamentary rooms of the permanent parliament and the ambassadors' houses.

The city is the seat of a bishop, and has been since 739. There were also three other jurisdictions answerable directly to the Emperor: St. Emmeram's monastery, and the women's convents Upper Minster and Lower Minster.

Religious representation

As the southeasternmost Protestant imperial city, in the 16th century Regensburg became an outpost for the spread of Lutheran teaching along the Danube to the southeast.

This key function can still be seen in two monumental churches: the New Parish Church (Neupfarrkirche) and the Trinity Church (Dreieinigkeitskirche). The New Parish Church was built in 1519 as the architectural focal point for Central Europe's most significant late medieval pilgrimage. In 1542 the council decreed it to be set aside for Protestant services. This church is exemplary for showing the denominational change during the time of the Reformation. It is not only the oldest Protestant church in Regensburg, but also the mother church of the Lutheran Christians in southeastern Central Europe. In view of Regensburg's national significance as an imperial city for Lutheranism, the council decided in 1627 to build a new, large Protestant church. The Trinity Church was constructed and fitted entirely as a Protestant church for the city, and it became a prototype of Protestant church architecture in southern Germany.