Day 5 — April 30, 2009
Passau turned out to be one of my favorite places. It is not a huge town but a little elegant town, called the Dreiflüssestadt or City on Three Rivers, the Danube, Ilz and Inn Rivers. The town is quiet with narrow streets that are now closed to vehicular traffic for the most part and provide a easy walking pathway to the city's attractions. The picturesque city lies in Germany’s far southeast corner near the Austrian border. Settled since prehistory and a former hub of the salt trade, it became the Roman village of Batavis, then later the Holy Roman Empire’s largest diocese and a sword-making center. We are now in Bavaria.
Here a panorama of the opposite bank of the Danube, some shots of the town's buildings with the Saint Stephan's Cathedral towering in the background and some green growth in the stone bank of the river.
In town we find ourselves walking amongst crowded buildings. It was early morning and some food stands were opening for business. This was a nice spread of cheese, no pun intended.
Our goal was the Saint Stephan's Cathedral. It was originally of the “late Gothic” style but was destroyed by fire in the 17th century. Once rebuilt, the greater part of it was done in the “Baroque” style. The huge interior is overloaded with frescoes and stucco work. There are four lateral chapels with fine paintings by the Austian artist, J. M. Rottmays. This beautiful old church houses the largest pipe organ in a Europe. The organ was built in 1928 and has 17,388 pipes and 231 stops. Beginning on the First of May each year, a short organ concert is performed. However, this was the 30th of April! We were one day too early! What kind of luck is that?
To hear this organ
It was an enjoyable visit to this church but it was back outside for more of Passau. The first two of the below, were found to be interesting, unique old doors. The next photograph is the back of Saint Stephan's Cathedral that we were just visiting. The colorful buildings appeared to be residences, perhaps apartment buildings with a bit of office or retail spaces. The cobble street made one to remember that this was an old, old town.
We are now heading off to see the inside of City Hall. It is the building shown below.
