TRAVEL THE ROUTE OF EMPERORS AND KINGS – REGENSBURG TO MOHÁCS

Day 1: Bavaria, the Danube and the Holy Roman (Danube) Empire

As the oldest capital of the Duchy of Bavaria, Regensburg was the starting point for the missionaries, knights and settlers who spread the influence of the Holy Roman Empire and its emperors along the Danube to the southeast in the Middle Ages. We will visit the magnificent Old Town (UNESCO World Heritage Site) with monuments from antiquity and the Middle Ages. We continue to Passau, where we will find the tomb of St. Gizella, a Bavarian princess who married King Stephen of Hungary in the 11th century.
 

Where the old trade route between Italy and Bohemia crossed the Danube, Upper Austria's commercial and provincial capital Linz developed, its baroque old town still bearing witness to the wealth of its time. An excursion to Freistadt and the Kerschbaum horse-drawn railway museum illustrates the economic importance, while the fortification towers of Linz, once famous throughout Europe, show the military side of this transportation hub.

Day 3: Kings, Margraves and Crusaders: Melk - Aggstein - Dürnstein - Krems

Already in the early Middle Ages, western (Frankish Empire, Holy Roman Empire) and eastern (Avars, Hungarians) cultural and ruling areas met along the Danube. The development, settlement and fortification of the land between these spheres of power took place along the Danube and led to the creation of a borderland called "Ostârrichi" (Austria). We want to trace the exciting success story of this medieval development project during a visit to Melk Abbey, the Danube castles of Aggstein and Dürnstein, and the old town of Krems.

Day 4: Imperial residences on the Danube: Klosterneuburg - Eckartsau - Carnuntum - Bratislava

Starting from the medieval "Ostârrichi", the Habsburgs created in the 16th century a "Danube monarchy" encompassing large parts of Europe. The magnificent baroque monastery Klosterneuburg, which was the "Austrian Escorial" monastery and imperial palace at the same time, embodies the heyday of this monarchy. The Eckartsau hunting lodge, also located on the Danube, was the retreat of the last Habsburg emperor in 1918. Habsburg emperor. Finally, we visit the ancient Danube metropolis of Carnuntum, a Roman imperial residence.

Day 5 : Royal cities of the crown of St. Stephen: Coronation city of Bratislava - Cathedral of Esztergom - Visegrad Royal Castle - Budapest

Day 6: Emperors, kings and sultans: Budapest -Mohács - Pécs

This morning belongs to Budapest, also called the "Pearl of the Danube" because of the location of its most beautiful sights (Parliament, Castle Hill) on the river bank. In the afternoon we visit the Mohács battlefield, where Hungary came under the influence of foreign empires for almost 400 years in 1526. The Habsburgs and Ottomans made the Danube the "Road of Emperors and Sultans", along which they waged their wars for supremacy, but also opened up new cultural connections and influences in the Danube region.
 

Day 7: From the Danube to the Steppe Lakes: Pécs - Balaton - Sopron 

copyright: Westpannon

With its early Christian necropolis (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Pécs possesses an impressive monument of Roman antiquity, but with several mosques and a neo-Romanesque cathedral, it also has Ottoman and Habsburg heritage. Passing Lake Balaton, the tour continues to Sopron/Ödenburg on Lake Neusiedl, where the peaceful reunification of Europe was celebrated in 1989 with the "Pan-European Picnic".
 

DAY 8: EMPERORS, KINGS AND "DISPUTATIOUS" DUKES: WIENER NEUSTADT (FREDERICK THE QUARRELSOME OF AUSTRIA) - KREMSMÜNSTER (TASSILO OF BAVARIA) - REGENSBURG

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