Bayreuth
Richard Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival, Germany’s most prestigious music festival,
have brought worldwide renown to the city of Bayreuth. Formerly the seat of power
and city of baroque palaces and gardens, steeped in culture and history, Bayreuth
was Richard Wagner’s city of choice as his home and his inspiration. Even back in the
mid 18th century as Margravine Wilhelmine was transforming Bayreuth into a dazzling
centre of culture. Wagner could feel the aura and mystique that encircled the city.
Wilhelmine’s margravial opera house is today considered the most beautiful
baroque theatre in Europe. Frederick the Great and Voltaire both visited Bayreuth
and Margrave Friedrich founded one of Europe’s first freemason lodges here in
Bayreuth. Built in 1760, the city’s synagogue is still an active place of worship today
and enjoys the accolade of being Central Europe’s oldest, active synagogue. Franz
Liszt and the poet Jean Paul also left their marks here in Bayreuth.
Haute cuisine or down-to-earth Franconian fare – eating, drinking and epicurean
delights are as much a part of Bayreuth as Richard Wagner and the festival. Yet this is
nothing new, way back in the 18th century, fine dining, heavily influenced by French
cuisine, was very important to both Margrave Friedrich and Margravine Wilhelmine.
So, early in the 19th century, the Richard Wagner Festival and its cosmopolitan
audience were responsible for bringing the world’s cuisine to Bayreuth. Today, the
people of Bayreuth love specialties from all five continents just as much as a fine
sausage or a roast joint with dumplings. Good beer has been brewed in Bayreuth for
centuries; city records dating back to 1623 list no fewer than 83 breweries. So, it is
hardly a coincidence that the most comprehensive brewing museum in the world is
to be found in Bayreuth. The city’s international reputation as a city of beer is today
due largely to the wheat beer specialties produced by the Maisel brewery. “Maisel´s
Weisse“ that is now readily available all over the world from Italy and Spain to the
USA and China has become a synonym of wheat beer culture. Bayreuth joie de vivre
is underscored by the fact that the city boasts three world records: taking into
account the number of people living here, which enables comparisons to be made
between areas of differing sizes, Bayreuth has the highest number of bakers and
cake makers, the highest number of butchers and the highest concentration of
breweries in the world.
Tour: City + Hermitage (3 hours)
After enjoying a short walking tour of Bayreuth and a stop at the famous Richard
Wagner Opera House, you visit the Hermitage. It is an artfully designed park of
European importance. The tree-covered hill lies on the outskirts of town and is
surrounded by the river Roter Main on three sides. Around the mid 17th century,
Margrave Christian Ernst had a hunting park and a small zoo created at this location.
The “Old Palace“ was built between 1715 and 1719. It became the venue of a
courtly shepherd’s play which gave the park its name: In “Hermitage“ the Margraves
and their royal household imitated the “simple life:“ They dressed themselves in
monk’s habits, slept in bare cells, ate with wooden spoons a meagre meal from
earthen vessels which the ladies-in-waiting had prepared.The Hermitage Old Palace,
a historic park on the outskirts of the city – once a retreat from bustling court life – is
home to the Old Palace with its grotto, water features, fairytale-style Orangery and,
at its centre, the Temple of the Sun crowned with a statue of Appollo, the god of
muses. Water features are switched on from May – mid October: daily 10 a.m. – 5
p.m. on the hour (10 minutes later in the lower grotto). The water features can be
seen at other times by prior arrangement
AKTIEN caverns
Steep steps lead down from the AKTIEN brewery into the dark depths of the
labyrinthine underground caverns cut back into the rock face. It is here that in times
gone by beer barrels were stored to mature. The museum holds a cornucopia of
exhibits relating to brewing, handicrafts and city history as well as a wealth of unusual
and bizarre objects. A one-hour tour ends with a glass of fresh AKTIEN “Zwick’l” in the
cosy brewery tavern.
For further informations see also
http://www.bayreuth.de/files/pdf/tourismus/Folder/gruppenreisefuehrer_2013_eng.pdf