Exploring Bamberg

Bamberg is a story-book UNESCO World Heritage Site full of Medieval Cobble-Stone streets.

When you step around the corner and find yourself surrounded by cobble stone and pastel, you have to take another selfie.

Kunstgalerien Böttingerhaus is a stunning palace which has been converted into an Kunstgalerien (art gallery).

For context you might notice a Brunnen or fountain behind us, and the name of the street is JudenStrasse. So perhaps we are in a historic Jewish Quarter?

Neue Residenz is the Palace where the Prince-Bishop lived, and definitely deserves to have its picture taken.

History

This is subject to update and correction, but I want to say a few words about history here. The Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg was an Ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire. Now it so happened that the Peace of Augsburg, in 1555, attempted to create a balance of power between Lutheran Electorates and Catholic Electorates in the Holy Roman Empire, by providing that each electorate would be free to choose whether to be Catholic or Lutheran.

But one of the issues that undermined the Peace of Augsburg was the existence of independent states which were subordinate exclusively to the Holy Roman Empire, but not a member of any intermediate electorate. These such states would presumably not be free to choose whether or not to be Catholic or Lutheran, and thus tipped the balance of power unfairly in favor of the Catholics.

To summarize: the existence of independent states in the Holy Roman Empire undermined the Peace of Augsburg and were a contributing reason for the breakout of the Thirty Years War.

If Neue Residenz is the New Palace, Alte Hofhaltung is it’s predecessor.

It my opinion, the Courtyard behind Alte Hofhaltung is the most German place in Germany. The 1700 photos uploaded to Google Maps seems to agree with me!

Indeed, when I stumbled across a photo of this place with the flower boxes full and spilling over, that was the original inspiration for adding Bamberg to our itinerary.

You know, I can really see the potential here!

I have never been to Venice Italy. But I have certainly seen Klein Venedig in Bamberg!

Brauhaus Zum Sternla was established in 1380 and the menu is helpfully translated from Franconian to German.

Anyway, we filled up on beer and Pork Knuckle, and then took a long walk in the park alongside the river. It was a perfect Sunday Afternoon in Spring.