The Beauties of Bayreuth

Bayreuth being a small Franconian town not withstanding, it has two big tourist attractions to offer. One, to be sure, is the annual Richard Wagner Festival (and assorted 19th century Wagnerian buildings, i.e. the Festspielhaus and the Villa Wahnfried, where he lived, plus a museum next door which yes, covers all the dark sides (the antisemitism, the later Nazi fandom) along with the positives. The other tourist attraction hails from the 18th century and came to be because Frederick the Great's favourite sister Wilhelmine got married to the Margrave of Bayreuth. Wilhelmine loved music (like her brother, she both composed and played), literature and architecture and did not let the fact that her husband was ruler of a tiny principality with assorted budget detain her from leaving Bayreuth with some of the most splendid Rokoko buildings imaginable. The most important one is the opera house which is a UNESCO classified world heritage building entirely preserved in its original state:

Audience Room:



Stage:



The other is the Bayreuth Hermitage, i.e. the summer palace and surrounding park, which she didn't start but greatly enlarged and redrafted. Like the "New Palace":



For a more extensive write up and a lot more pictures, see my post here.