Home»Regensburg region, Bavaria

Regensburg or Ratisbon started as a Celtic village and became a Roman garrison town when the Danube was the northern border of the Roman empire. Following the fall of the empire, it attracted monks from Ireland to reestablish Christianity in the region and became an ecclesiastical and academic center. Regensburg became a wealthy trading center in the middle ages and was an imperial city of the Holy Roman empire (the empire that, as every schoolboy used to know, was neither holy, nor Roman, nor much of an empire!). It played a large role for centuries in the political life of the German lands as it was the location of successive Diets prior to, and then of a Permanent Diet from the mid 1600s until Napoleon Bonaparte forced dissolution of the Empire in 1806. Regensburg escaped serious Second World War damage so its mediaeval core is remarkably intact and original. Today Regensburg is an important industrial as well as academic center in Bavaria. In the farming communities surrounding Regensburg, hops are a major crop as is grain (barley and wheat) to supply the ubiquitous breweries of the region, large and small. The Kloster Weltenburg boasts the world's oldest operating brewery founded in 1050 AD. The historical wealth of this abbey is displayed in the ornate Baroque early 18th century church built by the Asam brothers. Most importantly, the beer is still good almost a thousand years later.