Jul 29 – Bamberg, Germany
July 29, 2019
Last updated on July 31st, 2019 at 10:02 pm
From the river we walked up a couple long flights of stairs to the Bamberg Castle area. This is where the Prince Bishop stayed when he was in town. We learned that the Bishop of an area was appointed by the Pope, but he was both the leader of the church as well as the head of the government, thus he was given the title of Prince Bishop.
We walked around the grounds of the castle, noting medieval defenses and towers. We had an overlook of the city which looked a lot like Nuremberg with the steep red tile roofs. Bamberg is small, about 500,000 residents. The city was bombed in World War II, but not as heavily as Nuremberg. There are many legends as to why – fog that hampered the vision of the bomber pilots, no critical war industries, the Emperor’s wife spreading her veil over the city to hide it….. We viewed the Bishop’s Palace and New Residence from the outside, learning more about the Baroque architectural style – the symmetry, shape of the windows noting more window decorations on 2nd and 3rd floor windows than the first. Just outside the Bishop’s Palace was a beautiful rose garden with small trimmed hedges around the rose beds. The roses were a little past their prime, but the garden was colorful if not particularly fragrant.
Our next stop was cathedral. Its official name is Bamberg Cathedral of St. Peter and St. George. It is also called the Kaiserdom (“Imperial Cathedral”). This cathedral was consecrated in 1012. It burned twice before the current cathedral was built in the 13th century. Due to the time is talked to build a cathedral you can see Gothic, Romanesque and a Transitional style. This cathedral has any statues, the most magnificent being the marble tomb of Henry II, the founder of the cathedral, and his wife, the empress Cunigunde. There is also a statue of the Bamberg Horseman, with no one for sure who he is. Speculation is that he is the Hungarian king, Stephen I. Bamberg Cathedral is the only place in Germany where a pope is buried. He was Pope Clement II. The most impressing thing to Joyce with this cathedral was a archway above a special door for the Prince Bishop or Emperor. The statues and their symbolize were amazing. In the center of the archway about the door was a carving of Jesus with the redeemed on his right and the damned on his left, The damned were laughing and smiling broadly in an was that in the Middle Ages indicated they were crazy/mad. On both sides of the large wooden doors were statues of the apostles standing on the shoulders of the prophets.
Old Court –
Throughout the town we viewed many houses. Our guide explained that medieval houses were usually constructed with timber beams with plaster between them and referred to a Half timber construction. At one point as Baroque became popular, the Prince Bishop gave people money to update their houses to the Baroque style, but only gave money to update the first and second stories. We saw many houses in the Baroque style on the first two stories and half timber style on the third and higher stories.
The Old Town Hall is build on an island in the middle of the River Regnitz. The story is the residents wanted to build a town hall that would bring the people from both sides of the river together. The Prince Bishop told them they could build it, but couldn’t use any of his land, and all the land belonged to the Prince Bishop, so they used the island. The building has a colorful outside with beautiful frescos on both sides. These are original.
Bamberg is known for it’s smoke-flavored beer (Rauchbier). The grain and hops is roasted over and open fire which give the beer it’s smoky flavor. We were told that if you liked the beer, you say it tastes like bacon, if you don’t, you say it tastes like an ashtray smells. We will just have to let that story stand without our verification of either one!
We were given some free time in Bamberg, so we window shopped. We came across a cafe with yummy looking treats. We shared a Himbeer-Pistazien Sachre torte, which had pistachio cream filling with a raspberry cream icing with pistachios around the bottom with raspberries on top.
We walked about 15 minutes back to Kongresshalle for the buses to pick us up. While we were in Bamberg, the ship went on, because it would spend the hours we were in Bamberg going through locks. We drove by bus to Zeil a Main where the ship picked us up.
This evening we continues to cruise the Main River – pronounces /mine/.
