So this is my last update of Bruchsal. My envelope is already on the table, but Petra said, that she would like to show me the city today. The weather is sunny and the sky is all blue, so what else do we need.
Bruchsal was first named in 976, but it surely is older than that.
Here we are in a street, where you still can see some old houses. About 80% of Bruchsal was destroyed during World War II., so you can't see many really old houses.
The baroque palace of Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful baroque palaces of Germany. In the park you can find statues of the four elements fire, water, air and earth and four statues of the four seasons. Here you see summer.
It is the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion. Read more here.
After being almost completely destroyed in the final days of World War II, the main tract was painstakingly reconstructed according to the original design and work was completed in 1975, including the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall. The staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann is considered to be an architectural tour-de-force and has been described as the "finest staircase in the world".
Here you see the church tower and the backside of the church St. Damian and Hugo.
From this place you have a good view to many different buildings as named on the photo.
This is the front of the palace with the main entrance. On the right is the building with the chamber music hall and on the left is the church. On this photo you can't see them.
We just turned around and took a photo of the county court and the fountain called Amalienbrunnen or Schnecklesbrunnen, how they say in Bruchsal, because there sit many snakes on the fountain edge.
Then we drove to the Andreasstaffel. You have a perfect view over Bruchsal from this place.
Sorry, that this photo is so bad, but the sun was already really low and we had no chance to get a better photo.
The Belvedere on the edge of the "Stadtgarten" was built by Leonhard Stahl in 1756 as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten. Today, the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.
