Text: M.Zisso and Martina Hošková; Photo: Václav Pavlas
This year’s Czech-German cross-border campaign Ahoj Nachbarn! – Hallo sousede! was created thanks to the cooperation of the CzechTourism office in Berlin and the German Tourist Board office in Prague. Residents of both cities also joined in, often posting on social networks and giving their neighbors tips on what to visit in their home countries. To be good neighbors, we also decided to take a short weekend trip to Germany – enjoying the special German atmosphere.
German tourists are No. 1 in Czechia
Germany has long held the 1st place in the number of foreign tourists visiting the Czech Republic. “A total of 178,891 Germans arrived at domestic hotels in August this year, which was 9% more than last year and even 13% more than in August 2019, before the Coronavirus pandemic. Among the foreigners who visited the Czech Republic, guests from Germany won an imaginary gold medal, they were the most,“ says František Reismüller, director of the Czech Tourism Center – CzechTourism.
Natural monuments, gastronomy, castles, and sustainable travel. These were the themes of this year’s Czech-German cross-border campaign Ahoj Nachbarn! – Hallo sousede!, meaning ‘Hello neighbor!’ in the funny mix of respective languages. “We focused primarily on sustainable tourism. Cross-border travel concerns not only attractive border areas, but also other regions of both countries,“ says Jan Pohaněl, head of the German Tourist Office for the Czech Republic.
To be good neighbors, we decided to take a short trip to Germany – a short weekend trip, enjoying the special German atmosphere.
Off to Ensdorf, we go!
We loaded the car for a short trip with our two dogs, who are happy to travel around.
After about three hours (256 km), we reached our first stop – Salesians of Don Bosco’s Monastery in Ensdorf, Bavaria. It was a house of the Benedictine Order, dedicated to Saint James. The monastery was founded in 1121 by Pfalzgraf Otto of Wittelsbach. It was dissolved in 1556 but restored in 1669, only to be dissolved again in 1802 in the secularization of the period.
The premises were taken over in 1920 by the Salesians of Don Bosco, who still occupy them. Today, they focus their offerings primarily on ensuring that young people’s lives are successful. The educational center is a popular destination, especially for school classes, “orientation days”, and school camp stays. Youth work groups, choirs, and music groups find a variety of opportunities to hold leisure activities, seminars, or rehearsal days here.
Our second stop – Ellwangen
After two more hours of driving (180 km), we reached our next stop – walking through Ellwangen town center and having lunch.
We then visited Ellwangen Palace…
In the 17th century, the castle was converted into a four-wing palace in the Renaissance style. Later, it was given a baroque interior design, with the installation of a representative staircase and ceiling paintings by the well-known fresco painter Christoph Thomas Scheffler. After secularization in 1802/03, the residence was, among other things, briefly an appanage palace for Napoleon’s brother Jerôme, King of Westphalia. In addition to impressive baroque nativity scenes with over 100 figures, the museum also houses a collection of the violinmaker Benedict Wagner. A special feature of national importance is the faience and porcelain from the Schrezheim faience factory.
…and Schönenberg Pilgrimage Church.
Third time’s the charm – Sommerhausen
Our third stop was at Sommerhausen, which required a bit over an hour’s drive (100 km) again. We checked-in at Hotel Ritter Jörg. Sommerhausen is a very small, beautiful, and picturesque town, with nice coffee bars and restaurants.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant. It is a family restaurant, and the owner is a woman from Italy, running the place with her family. The food was very delicious.
New morning, new experience – Würzburg
The next morning, after a very nice breakfast, we left for the big city nearby (14 km) – Würzburg – to visit the Würzburg Residence.
The Würzburg Residence was built in its entirety, with short interruptions, almost within a single generation. The architects drew their inspiration from an area extending from Vienna to Paris, and from Genoa and Venice to Amsterdam. The building embodies the attainments of Western architecture of its day, French château architecture, Viennese baroque, and the religious and secular architecture of northern Italy, and is a synthesis of the arts of astonishing universality.
The Würzburg court architect, Balthasar Neumann, who was entrusted with the coordination of the massive building project, had to work not only with the leading architects of Germany and France – Lucas von Hildebrandt and Maximilian von Welsch, and Robert de Cotte and Germain Boffrand – but also with numerous artists such as the Italian Antonio Bossi, the„ornamentation genius“ of the Würzburg Residence, the gifted sculptors and woodcarvers Johann Wolfgang van der Auwera from Würzburg and Georg Adam Guthmann from Munich, and not least with Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the greatest fresco painter of the 18th century.
There is an interesting story behind the Tiepolo’s fresco ceiling.
The Würzburg Residence was destroyed by the fire-bombing of that city by the Royal Air Force on March 16th, 1945. Balthazar Neuman’s cove vault—with Tiepolo’s frescoed ceiling—held up. Against all odds, it survived the bombing, the fire that followed, and the war. Lt. Skilton became a Monuments Specialist Officer in Europe, where he rescued works of art in France and Germany. US officer of the monuments and fine arts section Lt.John D. Skilton arrived in Würzburg after the bombing with the assignment of saving the Tiepolo frescoes over the Grand Staircase and in the Imperial Hall (Kaisersaal). It was almost a one-man work – “For several weeks, Skilton collected lumber to repair the roof. He eventually found a stash of logs near Ochsenfurt, which he floated down the Main River to Heidingsfeld. After personally financing a sawmill to cut the logs, Skilton supervised a team of German architects, engineers, and laborers who worked diligently to repair the roof before rain could destroy the magnificent ceiling. The project, begun under Skilton’s supervision in 1945, was not completed until 1987.”
A happy ending – Weiden in der Oberpfalz
On the way back, we made a stop at Weiden in der Oberpfalz to visit Dehner Garten-Center and a stop for a nice lunch at Restaurant Pallas on Unterer Markt. Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland!