The medieval glass
Thirteenth-century windows in their original openings.
W. Bulach — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hpschaefer http://www.reserv-art.de — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alois Köppl, Gleiritsch — CC BY 3.0 · Alois Köppl, Gleiritsch — CC BY 3.0
**The most important Gothic church in southern Germany**, and its twin towers (105 metres) are what you see from every angle in the city and from the Stone Bridge. Construction began in **1273** and continued for **six hundred years**: the towers were not completed until the nineteenth century, by order of the King of Bavaria. That span is legible in the building itself. Its style is **French Gothic** rather than German — unusual in southern Germany, and the result of its builders copying directly from the cathedrals of France. Its most valuable holding is the **stained glass**: windows of the **thirteenth and fourteenth centuries** still in their original openings, among the most important surviving collections of medieval glass in Germany — they survived the wars because Regensburg was not bombed. Note: the cathedral has a living tradition: the boys'' choir, the **Domspatzen** — «the cathedral sparrows» — has existed since **975**, more than **a thousand years**, and is reckoned the oldest boys'' choir in the world. It sings at Sunday morning mass, which is open to all. Note: **entry is free**; the cloister and treasury museum are ticketed.
Thirteenth-century windows in their original openings.
105 metres, visible from every angle in the city.
A choir over a thousand years old, and open to all.
Domplatz 1, Regensburg
Four things. The **Porta Praetoria** — the gate of the Roman camp of AD 179, today embedded **in the wall of a hotel**; you pass it in the street and see it from the pavement for free. The **historic sausage kitchen** at the bridge''s end, said to have fed the bridge''s builders and working ever since — the oldest operating restaurant in the world by some reckonings. The **Thurn und Taxis Palace**, the seat of a princely family that still lives there, whose wings and garden are visited on a tour. And the **residential towers** scattered through the centre — built by merchants to outdo each other in the Italian manner, the tallest being the nine-storey **Golden Tower**. ⚠ All are within half an hour''s walk in a fully walkable centre.
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