Walhalla

Walhalla is a German Hall of Fame in a (neo)-Classical Temple Structure East of Regensburg. While scenic and impressive, the historical context is even more interesting.

What Walhalla is not

Unlike Antequarium in Munich Residenz, which is filled with busts of Roman Emperors for the purpose of implying a link between Roman Nobility and the Wittelsbach Dynasty, Walhalla contains busts and plaques of mostly historical German personalities.

Walhalla is an nationalist symbol from the early 19th Century, which is an inflection point for German identity because Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Hundreds of principalities and electorates were now consolidated into the 39 entities of the German Confederation.

So it’s interesting that the architecture is neo-Classical, because Nationalism has the split-personality of both being a product of the Enlightenment, as well as the thing that replaced it.

Danube River is the boundary of the Roman Empire. Whereas Regensburg lies on the Roman side, Walhalla is on the German or Barbarian side.