RATISBON CIVITAS

Ratisbon has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

Ratisbon is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. The first settlement at the stone age era had been of Celts, became a castra at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen when the Romans conquered it and founded Ratisbona in I century B.C., making it a strategic point on the northern Limes. Nowadays where is it the ancient site of Ratisbon? Probably it corresponds to what is today the core of Altstadt ('Old City'), at East of the Obere and Untere Bachgasse and at West of the Schwanenplatz, considered seat of a bishopric as early as the late Roman epoch.

The originary Ratisbon was the the most northerly point on the Danube limes of the Roman Respublica, inhabited by locals tribes and Italics legionaries of the Legio III Italica moved during the ruling of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire) it was part of the Noricum province and with the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Ratisbon was included in the imperial Italiae Diocesis: that was the reason why from the VI century A.D. the civitas was chosen by the Bavarian Agilolfings dinasty as capital of their reign. The bishopric established by the Romans was re-established by St. Boniface, when he built a new monastir in 739 A.D., elevated as ArchiBishopric by the Franks cause of its big christian community, so that with the renovatio imperii of Charlemagne since 843 A.D. Ratisbon became capital of the Duchy of Bavaria within the Carolingian Empire: 2 years later, 14 Bohemian princes came to receive the catholic baptism, an event that signed the starting point of the Christianization of the Czechs through the Diocese of Ratisbon as the mother of that of Prague.

With the reform of the Emperor Otto I 'said the great', Ratisbon became capital of the Upper Palatinate within the Reich Empire, that was elevated to Electorate in 1356 A.D. with the reform called Sacer Roman Empire established by the Emperor Charles IV with the 'Golden Bull'. Perhaps, on the way to the First Crusade, Peter the Hermit led a mob of crusaders who attempted to force the mass conversion of the Jews living in Regensburg (the new name in german language), then killed all those who resisted. Between 1135 and 1146 A.D., the Stone Bridge across the Danube was built so that opened the major international trade route between northern Europe and the Republic of Venice, starting the Ratisbon's golden age as a residence of wealthy trading families, making the city the cultural centre of southern Germany celebrated for its gold work and fabrics.

In 1245 A.D. Ratisbon became a Free Imperial City and a fundamental trade centre towards South and East Europe. But at the death of Emperor Maximilian I, the medieval Jewish community (the largest and most significant in South Germany) was expelled and the city council and local guilds moved quickly to remove it, citing economic grievances and long-standing religious hostility by confiscating their property, demolishing the centuries-old synagogue and much of the Jewish quarter and destroying the medieval Jewish cemetery, one of the oldest in the Empire. Subsequently, the first Diet of Ratisbon took place in 1541 A.D. and the city adopted the Protestant Reformation and its Town Council remained entirely Lutheran, hosting the future diets of princes and free towns of the Reich established by the peace treaty signed in Augsburg until 1806 A.D.!

Although the Imperial city had adopted the Reformation, Ratisbon remained the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop and several abbeys: 3 of these, St. Emmeram, Niedermünster and Obermünster, were confirmed as free imperial estates, meaning that they were granted a seat and a vote at the Imperial Diet (Reichstag). In addition, Ratisbon was seen as the traditional capital of the Bavaria (not the state), acted as functional co-capital of the Empire (second to the Emperor's court at Wien) due to the presence of the Perpetual Diet and it was the residence of the Emperor himself (for many years the Prince of Thurn and Taxis, still resident in the town).

But everything changed during the Napoleon epoch: Ratisbon became the seat of a principality (Fürstentum Regensburg) and of the Archibischopric of Mainz but ceded definitely its electorate privilege to the new Kingdom of Bavary, especially after the battle that damaged seriously the city in 1809 A.D.. Other distructions came during the Second World War, in particulat to the Regensburg Synagogue and several Jewish homes and stores destroyed, when the Nazi regime deported thousands of Jews or obliged them to migrate abroad, while the Allied bombed the Messerschmitt aircraft local factory and destroyed completely the Romanesque church of Obermünster. After that, Ratisbon became the camp for displaced person and Allied commands until the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 A.D..

Only in the Sixties of the XX century A.D. Ratisbon invested heavily in technical and social infrastructure to attract factories like Siemens and founded the University of Applied Sciences, that years later attracted the second multinational german company, the BMW, that set up a large production plant leading several well-known hightech companies in the city and contributing to the its current wealth. Ratisbon still today includes the largest medieval old town northern of the Alps with nearly 1,500 listed buildings and a picturesque cityscape, a famous sights concerning: 'The Dom' (St Peter's Cathedral), an example of pure German Gothic with the the famous 'Regensburger Domspatzen' (cathedral sparrows); the medieval stone bridge crossing the Danube; the near Regensburg Sausage Kitchen; the Roman fortress walls including the Porta Praetoria; the Church of St. James (called 'Schottenkirche'), a Romanesque basilica of the XII century A.D. derived by the originary Scoti monastery of Irish Benedictines; the Adler-Apotheke, located near the Cathedral, one of the oldest pharmacies in Germany founded in 1610 A.D.; the Goldener Turm (golden tower) built in 1260 A.D. on Wahlenstrasse by the wealthy patrician families competing against each other to see who could build the highest tower of the city; the Old Town Hall that hosted the Imperial Diet from 1663 to 1806 A.D.; the Gasthof zum Goldenen Kreuz (Golden Cross Inn) where the emperor Charles V made the acquaintance of Barbara Blomberg, the mother of Don John of Austria who was born in Ratisbon in 1547 A.D. as the local statue remembers; the Gothic villa of the king of Bavaria on the bank of the Danube.

Today Ratisbon is the capital of the Upper Palatinate Lander within the State of Bavaria in southern Germany, known for its strong industrial sector and its fundamental rule all along the history of european integration since its roman foundation, such as the medieval Old City centre enlisted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that makes Ratisbon among the top sights and travel attractions in whole Europe. It has been always a crucial christian centre as its patron, Wolfgang of Regensburg ex-bishop in Bavaria in late X century A.D., considered saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and regarded as one of the 3 great German saints from the 10th century A.D..

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