Regensburg Churches and Museums

Churches

Regensburg has a number of churches that are worth your time; among them are:

Dom St. Peter, a.k.a. St. Peter's Cathedral, which was built on the site of an earlier Romanesque church (portions of which are integrated into the current Gothic structure). Its façade is a patchwork of two materials: limestone and a greenish sandstone. Inside, look for a reddish tint on some of the columns, which gives a hint of how colorfully the Cathedral was decorated in Gothic times. Check with the tourist office for a schedule of guided tours, which include visits to the cathedral cloisters, the All Saints' Chapel, St.Stephan's Church, and St. Ulrich's Church.

Schottenkirche St. Jakob. The big draw here is the Schottenportal, or Scots' Portal, an ornamental doorway with Romanesque carvings of animals, saints, and deities. (The portal is protected by a glass enclosure; just open the door and step inside for a closer look at the primitive yet captivating stone figures.)

Benedictine Monastery of St. Emmeram, which is both a parish church and the chapel of the Thurn and Taxis family. The sanctuary is a riot of Baroque plaster and gilding layered onto a pre-Romansque building; you can visit the adjoining cloisters by taking a guided Palace of Thurn and Taxis tour.

Museums

Regensburg has more than a dozen museums of note, including:

Historisches Museum, or Historical Museum, with 100 rooms and exhibits that range from archaeological finds to paintings. My favorite displays are the Roman exhibits, including a diorama of workmen building massive stone walls and gates.

Schifffahrts-Museum, or Historic Navigation Museum, opposite the Altstadt on the northern bank of the Danube. (Look for the antique paddlewheelers as you walk along the riverfront.)

Document Neupfarrplatz, an underground museum in the city center where Roman structures and buildings from Regensburg's medieval Jewish quarter were discovered during a construction project in the mid-1990s. (See our Document Neupfarrplatz article.)

Reichstagsmuseum, a.k.a. the Museum of the Perpetual Diet, in the Altes Rathaus or Old Town Hall. The guided tour includes a visit to the dungeons and torture chamber.

Golf Museum, which is said to be Europe's most important museum of its kind with some 1,200 pieces of golf equipment and memorabilia from the mid-1500s through 1930.

For more information on Regensburg's churches and museums, or to inquire about church and museum tours, visit Regensburg Tourist-Information in the Altes Rathaus or see our tourist information links page.