Wurzburg

Sunday June 1

Würzburg

After leaving Bamberg we cruised along the Main River passed many small towns and camping grounds filled with caravans and motor homes, it would appear that the Germans take advantage of the slightest improvement in the weather.

We arrived in Wurzburg around 8:00 am, earlier than expected so we must have had a good run through the locks during the night.  The bumps we experienced entering a lock yesterday afternoon were caused by the First Officer, not the Second Captain.  Speaking with the First Captain later in the evening he commented that the hit was worth a barrel, not just a beer.

A Bronze Age refuge castle stood on the site of the present Fortress Marienberg. The former Celtic territory was settled by the Alamanni in the 4th or 5th century, and by the Franks in the 6th to 7th.

The first church on the site of the present Würzburg Cathedral was built as early as 788, and consecrated that same year by Charlemagne; the current building was constructed from 1040 to 1225 in Romanesque style.

The Würzburg witch trials, which occurred between 1626 and 1631, are one of the largest peace-time mass trials. In Würzburg, under Bishop Philip Adolf an estimated number between six hundred and nine hundred witches were burnt.

Würzburg is a beautiful Baroque city, the capital of Unterfranken (Lower Franconia). Although there were some military installations in the city, it was not an important target, and it largely escaped the repeated bombing that devastated many German cities. A few bombs had been dropped, and lives lost, in June 1944, and heavier bombing came in February 1945, but the destruction had not been widespread. Until, that is, 16 March 1945 on that night, a fleet of 280 British RAF bombers dropped some 1200 high explosive and 380,000 incendiary bombs, 927 tons of bombs, on Würzburg. The incendiaries started a firestorm in the old wooden houses that eventually consumed nearly 90 percent of the city. The total civilian casualties will never be known, but numbered at least 3000, and perhaps as many as 5000. When the U.S. Army entered Würzburg on 3 April 1945, the soldiers found little more than a ruin of rubble and ashes.

Marienberg Fortress

Wurzburg today has the appearance of a 1700s town with modern buildings around the central market place.  Cruising into the town, high on the hill we saw the Marienberg Fortress high on an hill.  It is thought the hill was first settled in the Bronze Age and the first fort built in the 8^th century and from 1200 a large castle was built and became the home of the Prince Bishops.

Prince Bishop's Residence

Our first visit today was to the Wurzburg Residence and Court Gardens, the construction started in 1720 and the shell was completed in 1744 but the interior fittings and decorations were not completed until 1780.  This building then became the home of the Prince Bishop.

The entrance hall of the Residence was large enough for a carriage with six horses to be driven in and turned around to allow the occupants to alight at the foot of a large staircase, above the staircase is an unsupported vaulted ceiling of over 600 square metres decorated by the Venetian artist Giovanni Tiepolo.  This is one of the largest frescos ever created and even though the roof above it was destroyed in the 1945 bombing the ceiling remained intact and the fresco wasn’t damaged.

We walked through many elaborately decorated and furnished rooms, most of which had been destroyed in the bombing but most of the decorations, furniture and 400 year old tapestries had been removed and stored away from the town so the rooms have been able to be restored to their former glory.  Some of the furniture had been so well hidden that it hasn’t been found and some rooms are without their original furniture.

After walking through the rooms we spent some time in the Court Gardens before entering the wine cellars.  These cellars have a length of 900m. and were constructed first and the Residence built over the top.  They contain hundreds of oak barrels, some holding over 5000 litres of wine and even today more than one million litres are produced every year.  After walking through some of the cellars we were treated to a tasting of three of the white wines produced there.

Market Square

After our visit we decided to walk back to the ship passing several old churches some dating back to the 11^th century.  Arriving in the Market Square we found it to be full of temporary wooden stalls surrounded with tables and benches with 1000s of people sitting in the sun and enjoying local food and wine, it is the middle of the Annual Wurzburg Wine Festival.

From the square we strolled down to the river and walked along beside it passing an old stone bridge, erected in the late 1400s and decorated by many statues of saints before arriving back at the ship.  Shortly after boarding the ship we sailed  and entered a lock to allow us to pass under the stone bridge, one of the 34 locks along the Main River.

After dinner we were entertained by a couple dressed in medieval costume and playing instruments of that era and singing songs, as usual several of the audience were recruited to take part and people ask why we sit right at the back!