From the series: Regensburg towers!

Everyone who visits Regensburg for the first time notices them immediately and is fascinated by the many towers. When you live in Regensburg, you don’t even consciously notice them all – at least not the smaller ones. No city north of the Alps has as many medieval towers as Regensburg. Up to 60 towers are said to have shaped the Regensburg skyline in the Middle Ages. There are said to still be 20 today. The so-called ‘patrician towers’ were status symbols of the upper classes, most of whom were merchant families. The towers, including the house chapel, were attached to their family seat. The 20-50 meter high towers were intended to represent the social status of the family: the higher, the more ‘important’.

One of these towers is the Baumburgerturm. If you turn off Goliathstrasse towards Watmarkt, you walk straight towards it. It stands magnificent and red, the second tallest tower in Regensburg, with its early Gothic windows. On the first floor you can see a beautiful loggia – presumably merchants used to display their goods here. You can really imagine this when you stand in front of it. Incidentally, the seven-storey tower was built by the patrician Ingolstetter family around 1270, following the Italian model. Italian because the Regensburg merchants had presided over the German long-distance trade merchants in Venice for over 100 years in the Middle Ages – so they imitated the tower building competition of their Italian colleagues in Regensburg. Instead of merchants’ goods hanging out of the window, the Baumburg Tower was later used for hammering and metalworking: from the mid-18th century, various tinsmith families were based in the tower. Today, the first floor is home to an institution: ‘Dampfnudel Uli’ (Am Watmarkt 4). Uli Deutzer has been making his famous steamed noodles in the Baumburgerturm for over 40 years. This was once the home chapel of the Baumburger family, who lived in the 28-metre-high tower in the 14th century and gave it its name.

Your city – your blog!

Let’s connect! RegensburgNow is also on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

(unpaid advertising due to naming and shaming)

Our excursion tips on Facebook:

Do you already know our Facebook group “Excursion tips in and around Regensburg plus Upper Palatinate” with more than 22,000 members? Click here for the group.