Resident Wurzburg from Munich

The Residenz is a 10-15 minute walk from the train station. There are buses and you can get the specifics from Dbahn. You formerly could walk through the Residenz on your own but I have read that you are now required to take a tour.

I liked the walk across the driver and up to the castle even more. Great views back at the city. It is a substantially longer walk - about 40 minutes. Würzburg is one of my favorite cities in Germany.

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Make sure you see the chapel located on one end of the Residenz. Very easy to miss if you are not looking for it. If time is tight, skip the fortress on the hill. Not to be argumentative, but the view of it from the town is, in my opinion, more impressive than the view of the town from the top of the hill.

Do check the website of the Residenz to find out when they are offering an English tour. If you don't go on the tour you miss half of the place, including the most impressive rooms. It is easy to get to walking from the train station. You might want to visit St. Killians too.

Wurzburg is a great place to spend the night (and have an evening meal) not just the day. Very walkable. If time allows, I suggest making it more than a day trip from Munich.

I'm sorry, but the over-the-top gaudiness of a place like the Residenz disgusts me. I can't help but wonder how the common people lived so the one person could live in such luxury.

If time were short and I had to choose, I would much rather visit the fortress Marienberg than the Residenz.

In 2007, I visited Marienberg first, then took the bus to the Residenz. From the Residenz, I walked back to my accommodations right down the block from the train station. It was a short walk.

At the Residenz I had a Bavarian Palace pass, so I could have taken a tour, but somehow there was no tour at the place where they told me to go to, so I just toured on my own. There were enough signs. Today, I think, you have to go with a tour.

100's if not 1000's of churches in Europe are chock full of gold and precious stones. Pop into the cathedral in Burgos, the interior is literally covered in gold. All those beautiful churches in Bavaria are not different. Why is the Residenz suddenly seen as excessive when compared to all the other castles, churches and palaces that cover Europe?
Yet, the common folk lived on without. That is just how it was and frankly still is.
There is nothing wrong with admiring gorgeous artwork and architecture centuries after it was created. Do go see the Residenz. The plaster work is amazing, the painting on the vaulted ceiling is one of a kind, and even the wooden floors are artwork in themselves.

I'm sorry, but the over-the-top gaudiness of a place like the Residenz disgusts me.

@Lee
Reading your posting made me smile a bit in memory of my youth, where my parents used to go with us children from protestant central Franconia to (catholic) Würzburg on protestant holidays for shopping: they shared exactly your attitude.

Many years later, I had an office in the Würzburg Residenz for a couple of years, and learned to look at things from another, more historical perspective.

First of all, the residence was not the home of an individual but of the whole court of a prince-bishop. According to the standards of his time he had to entertain a court if he didn't want to loose his reputation. He was not primarily a bishop but the ruler of a ecclesiastical territory and a member of the high European nobility. And as such, he had to imitate the court of Versailles whether he liked it or not (of course, he did). Now, as is well known, he was expropriated in 1803 by the newly founded kingdom of Bavaria and the residence became a state property. And so, I think, we can enjoy the bulding today without having to disgust us about its original owner. Although we have to pay an entrance fee (which, believe me, does not even cover the costs of staff, differently from Neuschwanstein), I think having such a beautiful Unesco World Heritage site preseved is worth it. By the way, the Marienburg, which you seem to like better, was also build by a bishop. Are we to think that the people who had to work on it really did so in better conditions that those who worked on the residence?

So I hope you come back one day and can enjoy the residence very relaxed. Maybe we can even do it together.

BTW, The residence is an important venue of the Würzburg Mozartfest, which begins today. Anyone who is in the area in the next four weeks should try to get tickets for a concert in the Kaisersaal. The synthesis of music and magnificent Baroque is an outstanding experience.

Why is the Residenz suddenly seen as excessive when compared to all
the other castles, churches and palaces that cover Europe?

I never said it was comparatively excessive, but it is certainly grotesquely excessive. Just because there were other decadently excessive edifices doesn't make it right.

Remember, this was the home of Bishops, Catholic priests who had taken a vow of poverty. Considering how they adhered to their vow of poverty, I wonder how they did with their vow of celibacy.

I understand that during the Peasant Revolt the bishop bombarded the city of Würzburg with cannons from the Marienberg Fortress. Maybe the folks in Würzburg were just happy to have the Bishop come down off the hill and live in the Residenz amongst them.

I find Baroque/Rococo decoration ok in small doses - Asamkirche in Munich. The Würzburg Reisidenz has too much for me. When I saw the Munich (München) Residenz, I wondered why they did not depose the Wittelsbach rulers earlier.

I prefer the castle at Würzburg. Of course, the Statue of Fortuna Fountain at the castle really does make you wonder about the celibacy thing.

Remember, this was the home of Bishops *), Catholic priests who had taken a vow of poverty.

Prince bishops were freed from this vow in the time of absolutism. As I said, they were first and foremost rulers and politicians. The finisher of the building, Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, was vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire and resided at the court in Vienna (his brother, the original builder, did not see the completion of the residence). How could he, as a politician of highest ranks, have led the life of a today's priest or monk? It is unhistorical, from today's perspective, to criticize the lifestyle of these people. They led the lives that was expected by their peers, not by us. The criticism with all its consequences, namely the expropriation of the Prince-Bishops, materialized in the years after 1803. So we no longer need to be outraged, for there is no real object any more for that indignation.

*) With reference to the plural "bishops": the interior of the residence was completed in 1781. So there were exactly two bishops who could enjoy its splendor, Franz L. von Erthal (1779-95) and Georg Karl v. Chr. Fechenbach 1795-1808), who lost it in 1803 to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

I think that calling things into question is one of most important and sometimes enjoyable aspects of travel. For example, we can ask if the firebombing of Würzburg at the end of WWII was necessary. There was a great miniature version of Würzburg after destruction in the City Museum at the castle. For me there is no final, single answer.

We can also call into question the ostentatious living of members of churches, even after the fact. Luther did before the Residenz was built. The Reformation was a revolt against the perceived abuses of the church.

We certainly can and do question the Holocaust and American Slavery without being there. What was happening at the time does not offer justification.

I lived in Germany for 6 years myself. It helped me see things differently about that country and my own; but, first I had to question what had happened in history and why.

Senior members of the church and state did come from the aristocracy and did use positions of authority to take economic advantage of the peasants of the day. This is why the Reformation, the Peasant War, the Weaver Rebellion and the uprisings of 1848 happened, and probably why so many Germans migrated to the USA.

I hope we all keep questioning the justice of events in places that we travel and at home.