Landshut

Here are some touristy photos of Landshut, in eastern Bavaria (Ostbayern), that I took on 8 August 1999.

Landshut's a handsome town. Much (not all) of what you'll want to see is along a single, wide and gently curving street. The bit that cars drive along ("pavement" if you're American) is cobbled -- which is the best surface for cars, if not bicycles -- and the sidewalks ("pavements" if you're British) are arcaded.

Landshut outshone Munich for a couple of centuries, declined, briefly reemerged, and declined again. All to the good: it meant that no megalomaniac bothered to knock down what was there and replace it with something grandiose and cod-classical.

The main street (Altstadt). Cobbles, arcades. . . . The building to the left with the clock is St Martin.

St Martin is a bit difficult to photograph from outside, other than from a single position (see below). Inside, it at first seems rather bleak, but soon you notice some intriguing details.

"Modelled on the Palazzo Tè in Mantua, [the Stadtresidenz] was begun in 1537 as the first palace in the Italian Renaissance style to be built north of the Alps," says the Rough Guide. It has some Very Famous Bits, but what struck me were the upper-wall decorations and ceilings. With a tripod (probably not permitted) and lots of time, I could have taken a lot more and much better photographs -- but we could only go in a guided tour, which was hurried through.

Spitalkirche Heilig Geist (church of the Holy Spirit, 1407-61), the other end of the street from St Martin. It's used as an art gallery. Here are two pictures of something that wasn't really "on display"; I just noticed it on the wall.

A bit fuzzy, this one, but you can see some late nineteenth century -- or so I'd imagine -- architectural exuberance.

Even the porno shops are tasteful in Landshut. (I would have entered, for sociological/journalistic purposes, but I was with female company and anyway it was closed for lunch or estivation. Plus I didn't know the German for "Er, no thanks -- I'm just looking for a wedding present for some friends.")

Any comments? Corrections? Write to me (Peter Evans), or tell the whole world.

First created -- in home-devised cookie-cutter style (batch files and lean, mean software) -- on 8 January 2000. Last fiddled with: 26 January 2000.