The visitor magazine for the oldest city on the River Isar Research for Freising – The Pope the science cultural and his close of tomorrow heart of links with Old Bavaria Freising Accommodation Information Leisure SSLLEEEEPP,, MMEEEETT,, CCEELLEEBBRRAATTEE!! Mercure Hotel München Airport Freising Dr.-von-Daller-Strasse 1– 3 Tel.: +49 8161 / 5320 Email: [email protected] · 85356 Freising · Fax: +49 8161 / 532100 700 hotels mercure.comworldwide Contents Pleasure for Body and Soul Freising is a city founded on faith – and thus also a city of Old Bavarian culture of hospitality Page 4 "If you haven't seen Freising, you don't know Old Bavaria" Freising – steeped in history, looking to the future Page 6 History of Freising – An Overview Dear visitors to Freising, The history of a city explorers of Old Bavaria, based on relaxed joviality guests from far and near, Page 10 and Freising residents, Life Sciences – As the cultural historian Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl (1823–1897) once The Future Is Now Freising's cultural and said, "If you haven't seen Freising, you don't know Old Bavaria". intellectual tradition paves Today's ex plorers of Freising will find a modern university city that the way for modern science looks to the future, that treats its great history with pride and respect, Page 11 proving every day that here, in the oldest city between Regensburg and Bolzano, the heart of Old Bavaria beats with the pulse of the 21st Benedict XVI – century. His Freising The Pope and his close links For centuries, this ancient episcopal seat has symbolized the sciences, to Freising education, art and culture. Today life sciences dominate teaching and Page 13 research where once theology, philosophy and historical research were housed. The city's skyline with its two striking hills awakens our fascination in the presence of great history and a pulsating present. Cathedral Hill stands for the intellectual and cultural centre of Old Bavaria, while Weihenstephan Hill is home to the internationally Freising Information renowned natural sciences campus. Between the two peaks, Freising's In the Heart of Bavaria ...........p. 14 City Tours ....................................p. 15 old quarter invites visitors to stroll and browse, explore and marvel at Special Offers .............................p. 16 the feast of sights to discover. Venues ..........................................p. 18 Let yourself be drawn into our culture and customs, our tradition and Conference Hotels ....................p. 20 City Museum ..............................p. 21 lifestyle, and see for yourself why our richly diverse city has become schafhof .......................................p. 21 an important focus for tourism and business travel. Munich Airport Visitors Park ..p. 23 Experience Freising – welcome to our city! Freising Garden Festival ..........p. 23 Credits ..........................................p. 23 Freising Rose Gardens .............p. 24 Touristinformation Freising Hotels and Accommodation ..p. 26 Marienplatz 7, D-85354 Freising Freising A-Z ................................p. 30 Phone +49(0)8161 /54 -44111 Old Quarter Map .......................p. 32 [email protected] www.freising.de/tourismus 3 Pleasure for Body & Soul Freising is a city founded on faith – and thus also a city of inns and taverns and the Old Bavarian culture of hospitality. After a packed sightseeing tour of well-known churches and nationally famous museums, it's time for a snack, refreshing the body to delight the soul. In one of our many cosy taverns. he "oldest brewery in son has become Bavaria's fifth the world", Weihen - season. Body and soul belong to - stephan, is in Freising - gether – and nowhere is this more aTnd not without reason. It was certain than at Cathedral Hill. naturally a monastery dedicated to St. Stephen, where beer was al - Freising has a host of fascinating ready brewed over 1000 years ago. churches: the magnificent Cathe - Today few traces are left of the dral with its mysterious crypt, the Benedictine monks and expert court chapel and Early Gothic brewers – one such landmark is Church of St. John on Cathedral St. Corbinian's Spring. Hill, the parish church of St. George or the Baroque church of the Bavaria has always fostered close former Premonstratensian Order links between church and tavern, of Neustift, the Gottesackerkirche which are still central to the Old or St. Clare's. So much beauty is Bavarian way of life today. The dazzling – so what a good thing cathedral towers watch over the that Freising's old quarter also of - city's faith, while also ensuring fers plentiful inns and taverns. that the pleasurable side of life With menus of hearty Bavarian does not suffer, with lavish menus specialities and eminently quaffable e n on church feast days, a round of beer. Great places to let time go i z beers after Sunday mass and of by, sit back and chat to your neigh - a g g n i course the "Starkbier", strong beer bour. About everything under the a s i m that helped the monks to endure sun – and about how pleasurable e r r f o the strict Lenten fast. The strictness it can be to keep body and soul t i s has gone, but the strong beer sea - together. i v 5 "If ou aven' ee Feisin, ou on' no O Bvaia! " (W. H. Riehl) It was around the year 720 that the bear and the Moor in his own Freising is everything: Corbinian, a missionary later to coat of arms as a reminder of his become the first bishop of Freising, life in Freising. old and young, crossed the Alps to Rome. One Mons doctus steeped in history and dark night deep in the mountains, a hungry bear devoured Corbinian's Cathedral Hill. Imagine it as the open to the future. pack-horse. Corbinian ordered the nucleus of Freising, the site of bear to carry his baggage to Rome, the ducal palatinate of the Ag - A place where worlds where the saint released ilolfing dynasty. The Cathe - meet. The cathedral towers him into the wilderness dral towers over the spot with thanks. This legend where Freising's first Church watch over an ancient city explains why the arms of of St. Mary stood. the City of Freising show a Cathedral Hill is visible from which is vibrant with saddled bear. The ancient afar. Yet once it afforded young, modern life - arms of the prince-bishops addi - an even more imposing vision; old tionally show a Moorish figure, engravings show a host of church all tempered by its e the origins of which are shrouded spires, warning travellers of the n i z in history; not even a legend re - presence of this towering spiritual a characteristic equanimity g g n mains. Yet it too is so much a and imperial city - as Freising was i a s i part of Freising and its Cathedral until its secularization in 1802/03. m e and tranquillity. r r f Hill that Pope Benedict included This was the seat of government o t i s i v 6 of both the bishopric of Freising partial success: Munich was obliged and its prince-bishopric, the secular to pay part of its toll revenues to princely state with its many estates Freising until as late as 1803. in Bavaria, Austria, Krain, Tyrol and Styria, ruled over by the prince- Scholarly Centre The remains of St. Corbinian bishop both as religious leader The same Bishop Otto (1138-58) lie in the Crypt and secular lord. is considered one of the great and are exhibited His life was occasionally made philosophers of history of the Mid - in ceremonial processions. difficult by the Bavarian dukes dle Ages; however, the first Bavar - and electors and their constant ian historian to be recorded was attempts to restrict the power of Bishop Arbeo of Freising (764-83). the prince-bishop in his own city Scholarliness has never left Freising, and other estates. A particularly and is in evidence not only in one decisive event for Freising's future of Bavaria's most beautiful libraries, occurred in 1158, when Duke Henry the Baroque Cathedral Library, but the Lion succeeded in transferring also in the hall of the former the toll rights for Oberföhring prince-bishops' college, for example Bridge, owned by the Bishop of - today the Asam Theatre and The enormous Freising, to Munich: we no longer Freising's most magnificent venue. painting by know exactly how. Bishop Otto I The interior was decorated by Peter Paul Rubens focuses the naturally resisted this "dispos - Georg Asam, whose sons, Egid attention on session" and achieved at least Quirin and Cosmas Damian Asam, events at the altar. An aerial view clearly shows the Cathedral Hill complex, crammed with buildings from a range of epochs. 8 later converted Freising Cathedral spiritual gallery" by art historian into a glorious, glowing Late Herbert Schindler, exhibits a se - Baroque masterpiece. lection of works that trace Frei - The façade and inner portal of sing's significance throughout the the Cathedral still clearly show centuries. The stone relief of Frederick I its Romanesque origins: And the Barbarossa crypt, the last resting-place of In the Shadow watches over the St. Corbinian and others, has the of the Cathedral Cathedral from the inner portal. magi cal Beasts' Pillar at its centre, The bourgeois city of Old Freising depicting a gentle woman with a clusters around Cathedral Hill. flower subjugating nightmarish Freising was the spiritual and cul - images of knights battling against tural heart of Old Bavaria until monsters and being devoured. Un - the late 14th century. Later it be - fortunately the symbolism under - came a prosperous country city, lying these images is today lost and has retained an atmosphere The romantic to us. of placid, cheery tranquillity: houses courtyard of the But the Renaissance and other ar - with rococo facades announcing Prince-Bishops' residence is today chitectural styles are also present their owners' affluence and wealth, part of Kardinal- on Cathedral Hill.