Twin openwork spires of St Peter’s Cathedral in Regensburg, Germany, reflected in the River Danube In the foreground is an historic steam tugboat, the Ruthof, one of the main exhibits of the Regensburg Museum of Danube Shipping.
Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany: St Peter’s Cathedral or the Dom St Peter, its twin openwork spires reflected in the smooth waters of the River Danube below an historic steam tugboat, the Ruthof. St Peter’s Cathedral is mainly a 1300s - 1500s building with the spires added in the 1800s. Documentary evidence of the first cathedral on the site, an “ecclesia sancti Petri”, exists from 788 AD. In the late 900s AD, a basilica with nave and two side aisles was built. This was extended westwards in the early 1000s. A fire in 1273 and interest in the Gothic style of architecture led to a completely new cathedral being built, starting in 1275, in French Gothic style. Section by section over more than two centuries, the cathedral was built. Construction came to a halt around 1520 with religious unrest and an economic downturn. The 1800s brought decisive changes. As a consequence of Secularization, in 1810 the cathedral passed to the kingdom of Bavaria and became a state building. In 1835, King Ludwig I of Bavaria gave the order to remove all features that were not Gothic. A 19th century nostalgia for the Middle Ages and interpretation of Gothic as an “altdeutsch” or old German architectural style brought with it the desire to complete the cathedral. The spires were erected between 1859 and 1869, under Bishop Ignatius von Senestrey, with generous financial support from the Bavarian kings Ludwig I and Maximilian II. The steam tugboat, Ruthof, and a diesel tug, Freudenau, are the main exhibits of the Regensburg Museum of Danube Shipping or Donau-Schiffahrts-Museum. Ruthof was built at the Christof Ruthof shipyard in Regensburg in 1923 and worked for inland shipping company Bayerischer Lloyd on the Danube. In 1944, Ruthof hit a mine. The steam tugboat was subsequently salvaged by Hungarian shipping company MAHART and named Érsekcsanád, purchased from MAHART in 1979, arrived in Regensburg in 1980 and was opened as a museum in 1984.
Size: 2000px × 3008px
Location: River Danube, Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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