The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-17
OLDEST TOWN IN EUROPE.
Peculiarities and Famous Guests Of the
Gasth of Zum Goldenen Kreuz.
(Erom the Pail Mail Gazetts. )

(From the Pail Mail Gazetts.)
! The old imperial town Of Regensburg,
Ratisbon as we call it, is in these days
comparatively little visited by the tour
list. For one AngIo-Amerioan visitor
who stops at Regensburg fifty make
point of seeing Nurnberg. Yet Nurn-
berg has of late become busy and
smoky manufacturing town, the hotbed
| of socialism and the home of labor dis
putes, while Regensburg, q couple of
hours further down the line, still retains
its medieval character, it's ancient GUS
toms. and Its Old World hospitality,
This fine South German city ON the
Danube, in days gone by the seat of the
Imperial Diet. theipolitical capital of that
historic empire which Voltaire declared
| to be neither holy nor Roman, ia the
possessor Of the Oldest inn in Europe.
Those who have to lodge beneath tho
roof which has sheltered royalty will find
in the Golden Cross at Regensburg
resting place after their own hearts. No
other guest house" in Europe, for the
Golden Cross scorns the modern title Of
hotel, can boast of such royal clientele,
and no other inn possesses records Of
such great antiquity. 1t was in an upper
chamber of the Golden Cross that Kaiser
Karl ", ION whose empire the sun
never set," rested from cares of politics
and theology in 1916; and 1T was here,
too, that the future victor Of Lepanto,
Don John of Austria, was born year
later-the offspring OF the hayward
Kaiser and the bewitching barmald Of
the Golden Cross. Barbara Blombergh.
A medallion of Don John now adorns the
wall of his birthplace, and a choice IN
oription, by local antiquary, tells how
Kaiser Karl "kissed a maiden's lips, !"
and how his son grew up to be 1.-THE
comfort and the safeguard of Christen-
dom" from the Turkish host which
threatened it. Before even Don John was
born or Thoughts of, the Golden Gross
King Z ferdinand /. halted at its gate on
his way to his coronation at frankfurt
in 1851, and the archives of Regensburg
have much to tell of the splendors Of his
retinue and the festivities which greeted
him.
During tho present century the record
| Of royal guests is most remarkable. The
visitors books, which date from 1879,
contain the names OF more than 500 i'm
perial. royal, and princely personages,
and some pages read like extracts from
| the first part of the "Almanach de
Gotha." The late cook OF the Golden
Cross used to say that during forty
years. service she had tickled almost eve
ry royal palate in Europe. Among the
/ y1Ir
| w., OF Prussia, .and. his Queen, the old
Kaiser William, who was frequently
here; the Emperor and Empress of AUS
| tria, the latter of whom stops at the
Golden Cross whenever she comes to see
her sister, the Princess of Thurn and
Taxis. the Empress of Brazil, the late
Emperor Frederick and his oonsort, the
King and Queen of Saxony. the ex-King
of Hanover, the late King of Greece, the
King of Wurtemberg, the Tsarina Alex
andra of Russia. the late Emperor Napo-
| leon I'LL, who came here as boy with
his father in 1898 and again In 1924 on
his way from Corsica, and every member
OF the Bavarian royal family for three
generations back. 1t was while stop
ping at the Golden Cross that the EN-
peror of ustria received the fatal tele-
gram announcing the death of his i'll
starred brother, the Emperor Maximil-
! ian of Mexico, at Queretaro in 1857;
| and, by curious yet melancholy coinci-
dence, poor Macmillan had spent his
honeymoon ten years earlier in this same
| linn.
They showed US with pride the room
where in 1866 Prince Bismarck, at that
time Prussian Premier, slept, when he
came with his sovereign and retinue
j of officials to hold the well-known Coon
| ference OF Minister'S which was the
last attempt to prevent the fraotricidal
war between Austria and Prussia. The
negotiations were held in the "small
King William. of Prussia. The room Is
now adorned with portraits of the six
most distinguished guests of the estab.
lisbment, but the Bismarck bedroom has
been preserved just as it was thirty
years ago. Equally proud is our host of
the autographs of Schiller and other
men Of letters which lhe possesses. The
words s.sund cine Heimath list es"
| (''It is indeed honey In memory of
his stay at the inn, and no landlord
could wish for butter advertisement.
The last great rejoicing which took place
at the Golden Crossswas in August, 1890,
| when the Prince Regent of Bavaria and
the whole Bnvarian royal family cele-
King Ludwig of Bavaria. who founded
the Wahialla, near Regensburg, in MEM
ory of Germany mighty doad. In hon
or of this day the host affixed fine re-
lief of King Ludwig to his walls. where
| 1t now divides with the older medallion
of Don John the attention of every
stranger rs he passes by. Fortunately.
the Golden Cross has preserved Its quaint
old architecture and its sweet simplicity,
in spite Tof the distinguished patronage
which it has enjoyed for so many CEN
turies. More wonderful still, it has re-
tainad its former Moderate scale of