Germanic culture, of such a serious and austere nature, merges in Regensberg with the Hedonism of Italian Tuscany. For this reason, Regensberg is known as the most southern town in the northern Alps. This is the charm of a town where one would not be surprised to see a fairy-tale princess ride past in a horse-drawn carriage. This is because Regensburg is the scenario that a movie-maker would choose for a film about chivalrous adventures. The place that has been the residence of German emperors ever since the days of Charlemagne, nowadays constitutes one of the best preserved Romanesque and Gothic architectural settings in Europe.
Crossing the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge) over the Danube, built in the 12th century, we have the feeling that we are going back through centuries with every step. On the other side of the river, mediaeval towers, buildings with sharply sloping roofs, colourful façades, much in the style of Italian Romanticism, although we are indeed in Germany. The Romanesque Schottenkirche doorway, the Cathedral of Ratisbon (the other name Regensburg is known by), with its tower of over a hundred metres, the palace of the Princes of Thurn und Taxis, the grand Romanesque and Gothic edifices… Our childhood imagination was full of places like this. Regensburg is that prototype of a cold European town, with fireplaces alight in the lounges of the bourgeoisie, slow footsteps ringing out on cobbled streets, but with the hot breath of the Mediterranean which has had its merry temperament transported from the other side of the Alps to give colour to a fairy-tale place from the Middle Ages, cold but luminous, with its windows reflecting those evening tales of gallant knights.
