Schärding old town tour

Old town tour through the baroque town of Schärding
Experience a picturesque old town tour through Schärding and discover historical sights such as the baroque town square, the water gate and the colourful rows of houses on Silberzeile. Immerse yourself in the charming history of the town!

SCHÄRDINGS BEWEGTE GESCHICHTE

From the very beginning, the Inn has determined the fate and development of the Bavarian-Austrian border town. The town was first mentioned in a Passau document in 804 as the agricultural settlement of "Scardinga". Shipping and trade (initially only salt, then also grain, wine, ores, glass, livestock, wood and cloth) made Schärding a prosperous town in the Middle Ages. After the Counts of Vornbach and Andechs and the Babenbergs, the Wittelsbachs and Habsburgs alternated as lords of the fortified border town. Schärding became a plaything (or bone of contention) between the two neighbouring countries, once inherited, then pawned, exchanged and fought over. Schärding belonged to Bavaria for around 500 years. In the 15th century, Duke Ludwig VII of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, the "bearded one", had the town fortified with moats, towers and gates. In the Middle Ages, the town flourished economically: intensive sheep farming around the town, flax and hemp cultivation made the textile industry with linen weavers and loden weavers, tanners and dyers the economic centre of the town. The cloth shears in the town's coat of arms bear witness to this. The integration of the town into the flourishing agriculture of the Rottal valley also brought economic benefits. The upswing was halted several times by wars and fires: In the War of the Spanish Succession in 1703, Austrian and Danish troops destroyed 50 houses in the town and the Gothic parish church during a three-day siege. In 1724, 30 houses in the town centre and the castle were destroyed by fire during the Corpus Christi procession. However, the greatest devastation came in 1809, when Napoleonic troops reduced the town to rubble and plundered it. 158 houses (including the churches, town hall and Bürgerspital) in the town centre were destroyed. This also meant economic decline, from which Schärding was barely able to fully recover despite many efforts. In the last days of the war in 1945, the Americans shelled the town from the Bavarian side, completely destroying several houses and damaging over 100. In 1966, 50 old town houses were placed under monument protection in order to preserve the old building fabric in the town centre. Since then, great efforts have been made to maintain the historic cityscape.

The SCHÄRDINGER CITY COAT OF ARMS
This version of the city coat of arms is intended to recall the imperial Austrian past through the black and gold, while the two silver poles on a red background are taken from the Babenberg coat of arms. The blue in the lower half is intended as a reminiscence of the city's centuries-long affiliation with Bavaria. Whether the cloth scissors were included in the town's coat of arms because of the similar-sounding place name or because of the importance of the cloth-making trade in Schärding at the time can no longer be clearly clarified due to a lack of written documents.
 
STADTRUNDGANG
From the Christophorus Fountain (1), you have a view of the Upper Town Square, whose houses with remarkable gables on the left-hand side, known as the "Silberzeile" (2), are closed off by the Linz Gate (3). Now turn towards the savings bank building (4). Continue to the parish church (5), down Kirchengasse, past the former hospital church or Heilig-Geist-Kirche (6), and via Georg-Wieninger-Straße (7) through the Passauer Tor (8) down to the Innlände, past the Leonhard Kaiser monument (9), the landing stage (10) and the Götzturm (11). Continue to the Granite Museum (12) and the Water Gate (13), where the Inn opens up views to Neuhaus and Neuhaus Monastery (14). Through the water gate you enter the Lower Town Square with its richly decorated town houses, in the centre the St. George's Fountain (15), you linger in front of the Town Hall (17) and once again overlook the whole square, paying particular attention to the fresco on the house opposite (16). Up to the right, you pass through the castle gate (18) to the Kubin Hall (19), cross the bridge over the inner moat and reach the castle park (20). A special attraction is the castle fountain (21), which was rediscovered in 2003. From the viewing pavilion you have a marvellous view of the Old Inn Bridge (22). As you descend the narrow staircase, you can see the war memorial on the Schlossberg wall (23). Passing the Alte Innbrücke cycle and guest service centre, you reach the Kurhaus (24) via Kurhausstraße, a short detour to the Orangerie baroque garden (25) is worthwhile, then back along Innbruckstraße and Sebastian-Kneipp-Gasse to the Protestant church on the Stein (26), from here continue along Steingasse and Lamprechtstraße to Ludwig-Pfliegl-Gasse. Passing the district administration (27), you reach Linzer Tor, which you cross and then leave to the left via Kapsreiterweg; along Seilergraben (28) - with the primary school on the right - you reach the parish church via the iron footbridge and return to the starting point at Oberer Stadtplatz.
 
1 | Christophorusbrunnen
Created in 1963 by Prof. Hans Wimmer, Munich. The large basin symbolises Schärding's abundance of water, shipping, the electric current of the Inn power plants and the cold and warm water cures, but also the danger of flooding to which the town is repeatedly exposed.

2 | Silberzeile
North-east side of the Upper Town Square, probably so named because of the rich merchants who once had their headquarters here when the Inn was still an important trade route. The colourful facades with pastel shades go back to the medieval guild colours, which were assigned to individual guilds (e.g. bakers blue, butchers red, innkeepers yellow and green).

3 | Linzer Tor
Former Upper Town Tower, which was inhabited by the tower keeper. A double gate at the beginning of Linzer Straße.

4 | Sparkasse
Originally the town hall, then the municipal grain store and town front, burnt down in 1809, privately owned from 1824 and built in its current form. In terms of urban planning, the building acts as a separation between the Upper and Lower Town Squares. The fresco (a woman with a savings bank, below her a dancing Innviertel couple) is by Prof. Fritz Fröhlich (Linz, 1952).

5 | Stadtpfarrkirche
The gate hall, which is entered through the tower portal, is a reminder of the time when the church was first built around 1307. In 1703, the Gothic parish church of St George was severely damaged during the War of the Spanish Succession and rebuilt in Baroque style around 1725 by the Passau cathedral architect Jakob Pawagner. Johann Michael Fischer from Munich completed the building. It was burnt out by the French bombardment in 1809 and was rebuilt in 1814. Extensive interior renovation since 1975.

6 | Former hospital or Holy Spirit Church
Completed as a foundation with the former citizens' hospital in 1498 and completely burnt out in 1809. Later used as a blacksmith's shop. Restored in 1961, now houses a hotel. The portal with its richly profiled red marble wall and the relief in the arched field is a masterpiece of late Gothic stone carving and the most valuable Gothic building in the city.

7 | Georg-Wieninger-Straße
Georg Wieninger (1859-1925), brewery and real estate owner, was a pioneer in the development of local agriculture, founder of the first tea butter sales cooperative, later the "Schärdinger Molkereiverband".

8 | Passauer Tor
Also called Allerheiligentor, originally had a Gothic pointed tower, was remodelled in 1984.

9 | Leonhard-Kaiser-Denkmal
Leonhard Kaiser, born around 1480 in Raab, was a Catholic priest. Despite being banned, Kaiser preached the ideas of the Reformation in the Innviertel region as a follower of Luther. As he refused to recant, he was burned as a heretic on 16 August 1527 at this spot (then "am Sand").

10 | landing stage
Start of the popular Inn river cruise through the wild and romantic Lower Inn Valley between Schärding and Passau/Ingling.

11 | Götzturm
Named after Ludwig Götz, who bought the tower in 1844 and converted it into a residential building; today it is once again owned by the municipality.

12 | Castle model in the Granite Museum
(next to the water gate) (Granite Museum opening times: April to Oct. daily 10 am - 6 pm)
The drawing by Johann Lamprecht (1816 - 1895) on the left gives an impression of the massive former castle complex, which was built by the Bavarian dukes Albrecht I and Ludwig VII, the Bearded, expanded it into an important national fortress in the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the mighty high castle with its imposing keep experienced its heyday. However, it was almost completely destroyed by fires in 1724 and 1775 and was never rebuilt. The picture on the right dates from 1499 and shows the inner courtyard of the medieval castle. Only the semi-circular curtain wall and the well house, which was reconstructed in 2003, are still reminiscent of the Gothic castle. Both pictorial documents and other old engravings formed the basis for the creation of a naturalistic model of the castle in spring 2013, which was made by the restorer Hartmut Weinast in the dimensions 190 x 130 x 70 cm and can be viewed free of charge on the first floor of the Granite Museum next to the water gate from April to October. History of the castle fountain: On 26 January 1499, the eleven-year-old daughter of the then castle steward, Knight Bernhard von Seyboltstorf, fell into the well while playing and was rescued by a castle servant who had been lowered down. In gratitude for the rescue, which was also attributed to the help of the Virgin Mary, a picture was made showing the well in its original state.

13 | Wassertor
Formerly called Inntor or Zollturm, until 1570 ducal Bavarian state property, then owned by the town, private since 1819; on the town side, the gate ends with a straight wall surface on which a fresco commemorates the shelling of the town by Danish and Austrian troops during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1703. Numerous flood marks tell of the flood disasters. The transverse pillory above the arch served as a pillory where convicts were put on display. Today it houses a restaurant and museum.

14 | Kloster Neuhaus
The former Gothic moated castle burnt down in 1724, was rebuilt in Baroque style in 1752, extended around 1900 with a church and right wing and is now a convent and secondary school for the English Ladies.

15 | St George's Fountain
Created in granite in 1607, it was located on the upper town square until 1884. Originally the St Florian Fountain stood here, whose baroque statue is now in the castle park.

16 | Fresco
"Hypocrite, first pull the beam out of your eye, then you may see how you pull the splinter out of your brother's eye. Luc. VI, 42." With this fresco, created as a defensive image, the former owner wanted to take revenge on the councillors, who sought all the blame from him in a legal dispute, but did not want to see their own mistakes.

17 | Rathaus
It was built in 1594 from two purchased town houses. After fire damage in 1809, it was remodelled several times in neo-Gothic and neo-Baroque styles. In the town hall on the first floor are frescoes by Prof. Zülow (Linz, 1947) with characteristic motifs of the old town.

18 | Schlosstor
Former home of the ducal castle guardian, today a local history museum and town museum. Until 1809 only accessible via a bridge over the outer moat. The older part at the rear, made of tuff, formed the outer castle tower and once had four storeys. It dates back to the fortifications that Duke Ludwig the Bearded had built between 1428 and 1436.

19 | Kubinsaal
The hall, built in 1997 according to plans by architects Schaffer and Sturm (Linz-Hörsching) and named after the local graphic artist Alfred Kubin, can accommodate around 300 people and is used for events of all kinds. The design was based on a section of the ring wall from the old historic town fortifications, which forms the back wall of the stage in its original (unplastered) state.

20 | Schlosspark
The former castle courtyard was redesigned into a park in 1895. On the site of the current viewing pavilion was once the "Pallas", the castle's representative residential building. The statue of St Florian from the 17th century stands in the small baroque garden. A cannon replica in the north oriel is a reminder of the town's frequent defence battles. A plaque on the inner ring wall commemorates the "Peace of Schärding 1369", which manifested the town's affiliation to Bavaria.

21 | Burgbrunnen
The 26-metre-deep fountain, carved out of granite, was rediscovered in 2003. The well house was reconstructed based on a votive image from 1499.

22 | Alte Innbrücke
According to chronicler Lamprecht, the eleven pillars date back to 1310; they were built on granite rocks in the riverbed at the time. During the catastrophic flood of 1899, the entire wooden carriageway was torn away. After the Second World War, the 250 metre-long bridge was given a reinforced concrete construction.

23 | War Memorial
Created in 1958 by Prof. Walter Ritter (Linz). Depicts the horrors of war in the form of one of the apocalyptic horsemen from the Secret Revelation of St John.

24 | Kurhaus
It stands on a small hill in Eichbüchl. A Capuchin monastery with a church was built here between 1635 and 1638. The monastery was dissolved around 1800; in 1814, the building was converted into an office building and purchased by the Convent of the Brothers of Mercy in 1928, who built the spa centre in its place. The former Capuchin church was remodelled into the Kurhauskirche. The lower part of the picture on the nave wall shows a section of the town with the burnt-out castle, the bridge gate, part of the bridge and the Eichbüchl with St Sebastian's Church, the Capuchin monastery and the town wall, painted by Michelangelo Unterberger in 1738. The life-size Baroque statues of saints come from the Rochuskirche church in Vienna.

25 | Baroque garden Orangerie
Before continuing to Station 26, take a short detour to Eichbüchl and take a look at the Baroque garden Orangerie. In 1884, Georg Wieninger lovingly built a greenhouse with a gardener's flat on the old city wall, which was revitalised in 2004 and now houses a restaurant in the middle of a beautiful park.

26 | Evangelical Church
Sebastianskirche or Kirche am Stein (Church on the Stone) (stands on a granite rock), built in honour of the plague and epidemic saints Sebastian and Rochus to avert the plague around 1630, profaned in 1783, later a theatre and storage room. After careful restoration, it has been a Protestant parish church since 1954.

27 | Bezirkshauptmannschaft
Built in this basic form in 1695 as the home of the wholesaler Andreas Schacky, after 1782 it became a caste office, in 1816 a royal district and care court and since 1854 a district office or district governor's office. The building took on its current neoclassical appearance after fires in 1779 and 1809.

28 | Seilergraben
The towers along the moat indicate its former fortified appearance. The wall itself was higher and had battlements. The rear facades of the houses on Silberzeile have simple pointed gables.