Everything Franconian

 Monday, September 21

Today we arrived in Würzburg in the early morning. This city on the Main River has a population of around 130,000 people with about 30,000 of them being students at the Julius Maximilians University. This university has produced 14 Nobel Laureates. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen won in 1901 foe discovering x-rays. An “x-ray” is called a “Röntgen” in Germany.

Wǔrzburg is surrounded by vineyards on the hillsides. It is in the Franconia region of northern Bavaria but citizens of Würzburg consider themselves Franconian and not Bavarian. 

Buses were waiting by the ship to take us the short distance to the Würzburg Residence. This palace was commissioned by  the Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn in 1720 and the shell was finished in 1744. A different Prince-Bishop - Prince-Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal was in power when the residence was completely finished in 1780. The architect for this project was Balthasar Neumann who was a master in the baroque style. There is a magnificent stairway inside with a tremendous unsupported flat vault ceiling.

The ceiling frescoes were done by Venetian painter Giovanni Batista Tiepolo. There is so much detail in this artwork and not only do the frescoes look 3-D, some of it is, with sculptures coming out of some of the frescoes. Photos can’t do it justice. In some of the adjacent rooms, Tiepolo created more frescoes and there is also stucco art by Antonio Bossi. Because it is the Baroque style it is over the top with gold leaf everywhere and large tapestries adoring many walls. All 300 rooms are not on display. Some rooms are used for university lectures. 

Unfortunately, the residence had to be restored after WWII because most of it was destroyed by a 20 minute bombing raid. The dome was not destroyed because of the wood frame above it and how it was constructed. 

There is a beautiful garden behind the residence which I will have to see in the future because the interior kept me intrigued until it was time for the tour to move on. 

The rest of the tour was walking through the historic old town most of which was restored as well. The tour ended at the Old Main pedestrian Bridge  which is made of stone and decorated in the Baroque style featuring statues of saints. The tradition called Bruckenschoppen is to buy a glass of Fraconian wine at the end of the bridge and drink it while enjoying the stroll along the bridge. It is the only place in Germany where you can wander around with alcohol. We had to skip it in order to get back to the ship for our afternoon hiking excursion. Darn it!

After a quick lunch, those who were up for a little hike, boarded a bus that headed to the top of the hill to find the Kåppele (Little Chapel). This was designed again by Balthasar Neumann. This is a pilgrimage church where there are  14 outdoor stations of the cross in separate little chapels alongside the hill. We started from the top and went down but to go in order you would need to go up. Some dedicated pilgrims climb on their knees all the way which would be difficult.

Our tour guide then led us on a hike through the vineyards which are all on the hillside so it was pretty steep. The grapes have already been harvested but we found a few on the vine and were tasty. Fraconian wine is primarily white with the most popular made with the Silvaner grape. 

We finally made our way to the Marienberg Fortress with wonderful views of the city. This was the original residence of the Prince-Bishops. We were able to walk around the grounds but weren’t able to enter the palace because it is closed for renovation. 

On the way back down the hill we walked through some pretty gardens, some of which were donated by sister cities around the world such as Japan and Switzerland. 

A 15,000 step day but worth every one!

P.S. I did get my glass of Franconian Silvaner wine on the ship!