Idea #264 – Visiting the Bavarian city of Regensburg
Ratisbonne is one of the oldest cities of Germany and possess a rich past. This region of the Danube is lived since the Neolithic. The Roman history of Ratisbonne begins in 79 AD with the construction of a first camp on the site of the current district of Kumpfmühl. This camp served as lookout of the mouth of two tributaries of the Danube, Regen and Naab. The camp and the small town are destroyedtowards 165 during the Marcomanes wars. Having pushed away Marcomans towards 170, Marc Aurèle orders the construction of a new camp, Castrated Regina, towards 175.
After his victory on duke Tassilo III, Charlemagne spends two consecutive winters, in 791 and 793, to Ratisbonne to make sure personally of the annexation of Bavaria in Francie’s Kingdom. In 1207 and 1230, kings of the Germanic Roman Saint empire, Philippe de Souabe and Frédéric II du Saint-Empire grant important privileges to the town, known under the name of Philippinum and of Fridericianum. During the Middle Age, due to its geographic situation, the town possessed an important role in the trades between Italy, the Bohemia, Russia and Byzantine Empire. From 1594, the Diet of the Empire sits annually in the city hall of Ratisbonne, and becomes perpetual, indissoluble Diet, from 1663. Delegations come from all Europe attend then the meetings of the crown princes, and live in a permanent way in the city, notably in the buildings of Gesandtenstraße.
In 2006, the medieval old city of Ratisbonne as well as the district of Stadtamhof were registered on the list of the world patrimony of UNESCO.
The city is also the seat of the castle of Thurn und Taxis: This princely family, known before under the name of Tassis, organized, from the XIIIth century, the transport of correspondences ; in the XVth century, Ruggiano de Tassis set a mail service in Italy. In Innsbruck, in 1489, his grandson Jeannetto of Tassis is named Grand Master of the Post Offices and establishes the beginnings of an international post office which is strongly going to develop thanks to the work of his brother François de Taxis, based to Malines then in Brussels. In 1520, the emperor Charles the Fifth names Johann Baptista von Taxis general chief of the post offices. Of this activity and their name comes the common word “taxi”…
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany
Larger Map