The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-09
THBTOEN OF REGENSBOR(1
Seine Quaint characteristics OF a
Medieval City.
Once "a Most Prosperous and Popu-
Ious Place - South GerInany-Its
Hence of MOnks-A Hidden Master
piece - The beautiful WaIhaiia-

| denly, as We sat together in the darkness
with all our windows open to the sitting
night Il was New York and a Sunday; no
traffic in the streets. which yet were full
| of sound; the sound of many feet returning
homeward from the quest for air in the
| purlieus of the city beyond the closely
| packed centre of its closely packed heart.
| In groups, in pairs. in singles detached and
solitary. Slow steps, swift steps; weary
steps; steps sensuous with the languof Of
the night and its iangu6rous warmth. Now
and again voices would rise up and drown
| the footsteps for a moment; young voices.
and old ones: mems tones and women's.
the wall of some sleepy child: the light.
| thoughtless laugh of some light thought
! less girl mingled with the yirile basso of
| her mate But for the most part it was
footsteps that heard, a continuous
tramp. tramp, tramp. and trip, trip, trip.
and shuttle. shuttle shuttle over hot stone
for us of that faraway old-world city Re
gensburg. For II was there that We had
heard just such a sound as this, through
| just such sitting summer night; had sat
! together in the darkness and listened TO
! it. and then had lain In beds too hot for
| sleep and tried in vain to shut 1t out, that
ceaseless flow of feet all through the night
| into the dawnng of another day-vast ebb
| OF a vast flood that had poured out with
! the ending of the hot days work, to gather
! ref-eshment for the next
II was typical Of Regensburg so &hey
! told US, that nightly Ausfiug, as they call
| il, OF Almost the entire population out into
| the suburbs where cooler Zephyrs blow
| One of the most medieval in its aspect
! of Germany's surviving medieval towns,
! this ancient bishopric, and imperial free
/ city, is one of the hottest when it is hot
| with peculiar and sitting holiness, due
precisely 10 its medievalism; TO its mar
| row. solid stone streets with their open
/ sewers through the centre; to its solid
| stone houses. that look more like fort
resses than domciles; to the fact that
until present times it had walls and tow
ers and moat about ii, and consequently
| was packed together with view to the
| utmost economy of space. "Phew, We
! gasped, al the end of orr first days ex-
| peTience of 1t, what must ii have been
! when those high walls We're standing, and
/ consequently what little air gets in now.
| up along these stone alleys, yclept streets,
! was shut out, and all the doors in?" It
J was on August IS and the crest of a hot
wave when we struck this famous old
! city or rather, IL struck US, and pretty
nearly finished US before We made finish
OF il in the form of its sights" Geo
/ graphically Regensburg has a right TO be
! hot of course, being we'll TO the south OF
. Germany But Munich. which is still fur
Their southwark. is not at all bad in sum
mer Wherefore the conclusion must be
that its holiness is peculiar to this old
Kaiserstadt. Yet if I had the chance to
90 there again, even on another August IS
I should seize it. The old city, though left
! out as it is from the average itinerary. is
well worth seeing.
/ OF Little Account as Modern City.
! AS a modern city it is indeed ihsignif-
/ cent, with its population OF about $4,000
I and its. HfeIess air. Time was. however
I. from the eleventh TO the fifteenth century
when ii could boast itself as being the
most populous and prosperous city in South
{ Germany Frederick II, the brilliant Ho-
henstaufen Emperor, made il free city Of
/ the Empire in 1916, which meant, of course
that it already had a fiourishing trade and
rich burghers who gave largely TO the i'm
: oeTiaI exchequer; also cuTbed little the
! pride of the dominant church and the inso-
Ience of the noble classes. But RegensbuTg
/ goes back behind this for its history The
! Romans were its first founders They had
: q fortress and settlement here which they
! called Castro Regina. Il museum Of Ro-
| ian antiquities found hereabOuts, is part
! of the towns attractions. and every now
/ and again a bit of Roman wall or some
other trace OF these first builders is
/ brought TO light. After the Romans came
| a body of Irish Benedictine monks. and
| founded monastery. which in part is still
! standing-the famous monastery of St. En-
/ meram That was in the year 652- Charlie
magne enriched its foundation, and
! throughout the middle ages the monks OF
| St Zimmerman were noted for many things.
| among others for their exquisite illuminat-
| ed manuscripts. Many of the finest of
| those now scattered through the museums
| of Europe came originally from this mon
astery The church. much restored. is still
standing. The monastery itself was abol-
! ished in 1903 and its great old buildings,
| also much restored. are now the residence
of the Prince of Turin and Taxis who mar
| ried into the Austrian imperial house. The
name by which Regensburg is more gener-
ally known outside of erHsany-Ratisbone
is Celtic. and is derived from these Irish
monks who gave the place the name of
| Batisbona. Just when Ratsbona became
F: :or the Germans Regensburg, which is 10
/ say, Fortress-on-th e-Regen - the city
| stands at the junction Of the rivers Regen
| md Danube-is not clear
Its Ancient Cathedral
/ AS early as 1872 it was made a bishopric.
It's cathedral however which is one of the
| very fine cnes of Germany, dates from
| 1875. The cloisters are especially beauti-
ful. The style of the building is Gothic,
| Many other churches and church establish
| nents gathered here: the city even
| today has an ecclesiastical and Church Of
| Rome stamp But as an imperial free city
| its burgher life was a lively ore. too. The
| Emperors were always inclined to favor
the civic life Of towns as against both the
| mobiles and the church. In the Regensburg
| of today the most characteristic feature
is a survival of those imperial times when
the great burghers not only made their
| cities great but fought, if must be. among
| themselves for pre-eminence within their
| urbs. All the great houses of RegensbuTg
| had strong stone towers of defence-Wart-
thurmer, as they are called-great grim
donjons that tell better than pages of writ
ten words the story of their pristine days.
| Many of these are still standing and
| among them one which has a peculiar In
| terest for all lovers of the personal side
of history 1t is the Wharthurm of the
Hotel Golden Cross one of the city's most
| notable monuments placed as it is where
| the Emperor Charles lodged when at
| tending the Imperial Diet of 1876 1t was
| here and at this time that he met and
| loved the beautiful Barbara Blomberg, or
| Blumberger. as some historians name her.
| who thus became the mother of the famous
general, Don John of Austria. Story has it
| that Don Juan was born in the Golden
| Cross itself the next year 1871 But more
sober chronicle denies this particular DE-
tail of this historical romance. Barbara
| hon n Pn z1rI-c TN