Page 501 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

monumental work of the
legendary artist-brothers,
TOP TIP: Dominikus and Johann
GUEST CARDS Baptist Zimmermann.
In 1730 a farmer in
Overnight anywhere in the Alps and your hotel Steingaden claimed he’d
should issue you with a free Gästekarte, which gives witnessed the miracle of
free bus travel as well as many other discounts on his Christ statue shedding
admission and activities.
tears. Pilgrims poured into
the town in such numbers
niskirche (Vorderer Anger) is melfahrt (Kirchenstrasse 23), over the next decade that
a creation by the baroque which sports a choir by the local abbot commis-
architect Dominikus Dominikus Zimmermann. sioned a new church to
Zimmermann, who lived The Drive » To reach the house the weepy work.
in Landsberg and even next Romantic Road stop, the Inside the almost-circular
served as its mayor. The Wieskirche (21km away), take structure, eight snow-white GERMANY 35 THE ROMANTIc ROAD
town’s Neues Stadtmuse- the B17 south until you reach pillars are topped by gold
um (www.museum-landsberg. Steingaden. From there country capital stones and swirling
de; Von-Helfenstain-Gasse 426; roads lead east and then south decorations. The unsup-
adult/concession €3.50/2; to Wies. This is where Bavaria ported dome must have
seemed like God’s work
h2-5pm Tue-Fri, from 11am Sat starts to take on the look of
& Sun May-Jan, closed Feb-Apr) the Alps, with flower-filled in the mid-17th century,
meadows in summer and views
tells Landsberg’s tale of the high peaks when the its surface adorned with
from prehistory to the weather is clear. a pastel ceiling fresco
20th century. celebrating Christ’s
resurrection.
The Drive » Still tracing
the valley of the River Lech, c Wieskirche The Drive » From the
the 28km drive along the B17 Located in the village Wieskirche, the best way to
between Landsberg am Lech of Wies, the Wieskirche reach the next stop at Füssen is
and Schongau shouldn’t take (%08862-932 930; www. to backtrack to Steingaden and
more than 30 minutes. En route wieskirche.de; h8am-8pm Apr- rejoin the B17 there. The entire
you pass through Hohenfurch, a journey is 27km through the
pretty little town regarded as the Oct, to 5pm Nov-Mar) is one increasingly undulating foothills
gateway to the Pfaffenwinkel, a of Bavaria’s best-known of the Alps, with some gorgeous
foothill region of the Alps. baroque churches and views of the ever-nearing peaks
a Unesco-listed site, the along the way.
b Schongau
One of the lesser-visited LANDSBERG’S DARK LITERARY
stops on the Romantic CONNECTIONS
Road, the attractive town
of Schongau is known for Landsberg am Lech can claim to be the town where
its largely intact medieval one of the German language’s best-selling books
defences. The Gothic was written. Was it a work by Goethe, Remarque,
Ballenhaus (Marienplatz Brecht? No, unfortunately, it was Adolf Hitler. It was
2) served as the town during his 264 days of incarceration in a Landsberg
hall until 1902 and has a jail, following the 1923 beer-hall putsch, that Hitler
distinctive stepped gable. penned his hate-filled Mein Kampf, a book that sold
It now houses a cafe. an estimated seven million copies when published.
Other attractions include The jail later held Nazi war criminals and is still in use.
the Church of Maria Him-

499