Germany Guide
Northern Bavaria: Franconia
The Bergstadt
If you cross the river by either the Obere or Untere Brücke, you enter the lower reaches of the Bergstadt, an atmospheric hotchpotch of antique shops, antiquarian booksellers and ancient Brauereigaststätten. South of the bridges along Judenstrasse and Concordiastrasse are two of Bamberg's most imposing Baroque houses, the outrageously florid Böttingerhaus (1707–13), built for the privy councillor and elector Johann Ignaz Tobias Böttinger, and the more dignified Concordia on the riverside, built for the same client by Johann Dientzenhofer between 1717 and 1722. Neither is open to the public.
Standing above the lower town is Domplatz, for centuries the nexus of spiritual and temporal power in Bamberg and one of the most splendid urban spaces in southern Germany.