On this page, you will be able to find information about the suggested hotels to stay, about the city and prominent places to visit. If you visit Bayreuth for the first time, consider our suggestions given below:
HOTELS:
1. Hotel IBIS Budget Bayreuth, Bürgerreuther Str. 6, 95444 Bayreuth, Tel. 0921-800700
There are single rooms incl. breakfast for 82 € per night and double rooms incl. breakfast for 102 €. The rooms of the allotment can be booked until 01.05.2024. Payment will be on site at check-in by the guest. The rooms can be booked directly in the hotel (via telephone, e-mail or fax) – please use the attached form and send it to HB3F6-RE1@accor.com – An online reservation is not possible!
The rooms can be cancelled free of charge until arrival day 6:00 am.
2. Hotel Rheingold, Austraße 2, 95445 Bayreuth, Tel. 0921-990085911
There are single rooms available for 77 € per night including breakfast or double rooms for single use for 87 € per night including breakfast. Please send an email to reservierung@hotel-rheingold-bayreuth.de with the keyword: “LOFT2024” to book your room.
How to find your way to University? Navigating from Bayreuth Central Train Station to the University of Bayreuth
Below, you can find information about possible options in order to find your way to University of Bayreuth. Along with written information, please refer to the maps as a guide.
Welcome to Bayreuth! If you’re arriving at the central train station and need to find your way to the University of Bayreuth, we’ve got you covered. Follow these step-by-step directions to reach your destination efficiently.
Directions:
Upon disembarking from your train, look for signs directing you towards the city center or local transportation hubs. Once outside the train station, you’ll find the Bayreuth bus station next to the main entrance. This is where you’ll catch the bus to the University of Bayreuth.
Board Bus Route 316 (6 stops towards Campus):
From Bayreuth central train station (Bayreuth Hauptbahnhof – Bayreuth Hbf) bus number 316 directly drives you to University of Bayreuth. However, this bus is not available each and every hour. So, please, refer to the printed schedules available at the bus station to inform yourself and to identify the appropriate bus route. Look for buses heading towards the University of Bayreuth. Main bus stops inside the Campus are: Mensa, Uni-Verwaltung, Geowissenschaften.
Also you can board different bus routes which directs you to Central Bus Station, which is called ZOH (Zentrale Omnibushaltestelle). You can consider these buses to ZOH from Bayreuth Hbf: 301, 302, 303, 305, 309, 328, 375. Once you reached to Bayreuth ZOH you can consider following busses to University of Bayreuth towards Birken-Universität and Campus respectively: 304 (14 stops), 306 (5 stops).
Remain on the bus until it reaches the designated stop for the University of Bayreuth. This stop is typically announced on board, and you can also refer to the digital displays inside the bus.
Upon exiting the bus, you’ll find yourself in close proximity to the University of Bayreuth campus. Follow the signs or inquire with locals for directions to your specific destination and/or building within the university grounds.
In any case, wherever you are in the city, if you want to come to University of Bayreuth, please be informed that main bus stops at university are Mensa, Uni-Verwaltung, Geowissenschaften and bus numbers 304, 306 and 316 drive to these destinations. So in the link below, add your current location and Mensa as a final destination. You will find the best routes which will direct you to University.
And yes! You’ve successfully navigated from the Bayreuth central train station (or from wherever you are in the city) to the University of Bayreuth. We hope these directions have been helpful in reaching your destination. Enjoy your time at the University of Bayreuth!
Below you can find the link which will guide you, give you more information and navigate you until University and/or anywhere else in the city:
This website is available in English and German languages.
Of course, it is also possible to walk to University of Bayreuth from Bayreuth Hbf, which will take around 30 minutes. For this, please indicate the address of the University (given below) as a destination.
Address of University of Bayreuth, in case you will need it:
Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth
Taxi services are also available next to the main door of Bayreuth Hbf.
Places to visit in Bayreuth:
1.Margravial Opera House (Markgräfliches Opernhaus):
Photo: https://welterbedeutschland.de/margravial-opera-house-bayreuth/
The Margravial Opera House is the best-preserved example of a free-standing baroque court theater. The model was the largest opera houses of the time in Vienna and Dresden. As a unique monument to the festival and musical culture of the 18th century, it was added to the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 2012.
The driving force behind the exceptional project was the music and theater enthusiast Margravine Wilhelmine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1709-1758). The reason for its construction was the wedding of her only daughter, Elisabeth Friederike Sophie, to Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg in 1748, which was celebrated at great expense. The leading theater architect of the time, the Italian Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, who had previously worked for the Vienna Imperial Court, was hired as the architect of the new opera house. His son Carlo Galli Bibiena took over the on-site construction supervision and created numerous stage designs and festival decorations until the Margravine’s death.
The Margravial Opera House follows the type of Italian box theater. The completely preserved lodge house, made of wood and canvas, is a self-supporting structure set into the stone building shell. The theater’s interior was completed in a very short space of time with wooden architectural members and mounted sculptures, some of which were prefabricated and painted outside the construction site. In less than four years of construction from 1744 to 1748, a masterpiece of baroque festive architecture was created.
An impression of the original color of the lodge house was regained through the comprehensive restoration carried out from 2013 to 2018. With numerous illusionistic effects, baroque painting creates an overwhelming spatial experience.
The auditorium and stage form a unit. Opposite the large stage portal framed by columns is the royal box at the back of the auditorium. As on the front of the stage, the sculptural ensemble serves to glorify the Hohenzollern dynasty and its clients, Margrave Friedrich and Margravine Wilhelmine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
For more information, exhibition and visit please click the link below:
https://www.bayreuth-wilhelmine.de/deutsch/opernh/ausstellung.htm
Source: https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/schloss/objekte/bay_oper.htm
2. New Palace Bayreuth(Neues Schloss Bayreuth):
Photo: https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/schloss/objekte/bay_ns.htm
Although the Old Castle was an imposing 17th century building , it no longer met the increased demands of baroque court. Its destruction by fire in January 1753 accelerated the decision in favor of building a new building. The New Palace was built under Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1753. As in the Old Hermitage Palace, his wife Wilhelmine had a great influence on the design of the rooms.
Particularly noteworthy are the mirror cabinet, the salon with a gold ceiling, the Japanese room and the old music room. In the southern wing of the palace is probably the most important spatial work of art of the Bayreuth Rococo: Carved and gilded palm trees are placed on heavily grained walnut paneling, their crowns seeming to reach into the sky. After the main palace was completed, the margrave had the initially free-standing Italian palace built for his second wife, Sophie Karoline von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, in 1759. A little later this was connected to the south wing of the New Palace.
There are various museum areas in the New Palace, such as the “Bayreuth Faience – Rummel Collection”, which shows the greatest examples from the Bayreuth Manufactory’s production, the branch gallery of the Bavarian State Painting Collections with works from the late Baroque and the regular “Miniature Collection Dr. Löer” with gallant and erotic miniatures from the 18th century .
At the end of the 18th century, the Hofgarten was converted into an “England-style” park with winding paths and open plantings. The basic features of the geometric garden, with the canal and three main avenues, are still recognizable today. The parterre in front of the south wing of the New Palace was reconstructed in 1990.
Source: https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/schloss/objekte/bay_ns.htm
3. Old Palace, Eremitage (Altes Schloss, Eremitage):
Photo: https://bayreuth-wilhelmine.de/deutsch/eremitag/n_schloss.htm
In 1715, Margrave Georg Wilhelm had the Old Hermitage Palace built not far from the residential city of Bayreuth as the center of a courtly hermitage. In 1735, the year he took office, Margrave Friedrich made the land a gift to his wife Wilhelmine. Fascinated by the uniqueness of the facility, the Margravine immediately began extensive expansion measures.
She first had the Old Palace enlarged and, among other things, set up a music room, a Japanese cabinet and the Chinese hall of mirrors, in which she wrote her famous memoirs.
Between 1743 and 1745, various architectures and fountain systems such as the Ruin Theater and the Lower Grotto were built based on designs by Joseph Saint-Pierre. The construction of the New Palace with the Upper Grotto took place between 1749 and 1753.
As part of her expansion of the existing gardens, Wilhelmine resorted to traditional baroque elements such as hedgerows, arcades and water features. The Hermitage occupies a special position among the gardens of the 18th century .
Source: https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/schloss/objekte/bay_as.htm
4. Richard Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival Theater (Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus):
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/richard-wagner/festspielhaus/
Richard Wagner’s 19th-century Bayreuth Festival Theater is one of the largest opera stages in the world. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and dedicated solely to the performance of his stage works. It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival, for which it was specifically conceived and built. Its official name is Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus. It is the home of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.
Richard Wagner chose Bayreuth as the location for his festival as early as 1871 . The Margravial Opera House initially took Richard Wagner to Bayreuth. At that time, the Margravial Opera House had the largest stage in Germany and aroused Wagner’s interest. Added to this was the city’s location, almost halfway between Munich and the new imperial capital Berlin, but still within the domain of his patron Ludwig II.
Richard Wagner was by no means deterred by the fact that the Margravial Opera House was too small, too ostentatious and too focused on absolutist pomp and representation for the Wagnerian musical theater. A festival hall was needed in Bayreuth! And that even though there was said to have been an attractive offer from Chicago and King Ludwig would have preferred to see the festival hall in Munich.
After Gottfried Semper’s initial drafts were destroyed, Richard Wagner commissioned the Leipzig architect Otto Brückwald, who adopted the basic principles of Semper’s plans. The foundation stone was laid in 1872. The house was supposed to be financed through the sale of patronage certificates, which initially did not have the desired success, so King Ludwig had to ensure its completion with a loan totaling 400,000 marks.
In 1876, the first festival finally opened with the premiere of Ring des Nibelungen under the eyes of Emperor Wilhelm I and the Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II. The list of composers present reads like a who’s who of classical music of the era:
Tchaikovsky
Grieg
Gounod
Bruckner
Liszt
Saint-Saens
The myth of Bayreuth, in which the house plays a decisive role, began.
The house’s excellent reputation is due to the wooden construction of the auditorium and the excellent acoustics . Certainly also in the orchestra pit, which is up to 12 meters deep and allows the sound of the orchestra playing undercover to escape indirectly into the auditorium. Of course also at the festival orchestra itself, which is made up of the best musicians from major German orchestras and is considered the best Wagner orchestra of all. The soft, dark sound of the house seems to arise not only from the orchestra pit, but directly from the depths of Wagnerian mythology itself.
The fact that the singers can be understood better in Bayreuth than elsewhere is also thanks to the architecture of the house. Since most of the orchestra sits below the stage rather than in front of it, the singers have almost direct contact with the audience. The orchestral sound, initially projected from the arched wall of the pit onto the back wall of the stage, carries the singers’ voices out into the audience, as it were.
Further information about the festival hall and its construction history as well as numerous photos can be found on the official homepage of the Bayreuth Festival at: https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/
Source: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/richard-wagner/festspielhaus/
5. Richard Wagner Museum
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/richard-wagner-museum/
With its festivals and the Richard Wagner Museum, Bayreuth is considered the epicenter of worldwide Wagner enthusiasm. Like the Festspielhaus, Haus Wahnfried, with its important and eventful history, is a special German cultural place where not only the aura of one of Germany’s greatest artists can be felt in a special, authentic way, but at the same time a symbol of the ambivalent and precarious German intellectual and cultural history of the last 150 years.
Further information, opening hours and other details can be found at: https://www.wagnermuseum.de/
6. Franz-Liszt-Museum
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/franz-liszt-museum/
Traces of Liszt can still be found in Bayreuth today, next to the Franz Liszt Museum, his mausoleum in the city cemetery and his grand piano.
The museum is located at Wahnfriedstrasse 9 , in the house where the pianist, conductor and composer died, in the immediate vicinity of the Wahnfried house .
The basis for this museum is the collection of the Munich pianist Ernst Burger, which includes around 300 pictures, manuscripts and prints, which was purchased by the city of Bayreuth in 1988 and has since been supplemented by a number of loans from the Richard Wagner Foundation.
When Franz Liszt visited the Bayreuth Festival in July 1886 , he was already seriously ill. He lived in the house of the head forester Fröhlig, which today houses the Franz Liszt Museum, right next to the Wahnfried house, where his daughter Cosima Wagner lived with her children.
On the night of July 31st to August 1st, Franz Liszt died in the presence of Cosima and was buried on August 3rd in the Bayreuth city cemetery. A Liszt bust by Arno Breker stands on the Green Hill, in the park in front of the Festival Hall, not far from the Breker bust of Richard Wagner.
In addition to the Franz Liszt Museum, there are still his mausoleum in the city cemetery and in the rococo hall of the Steingraeber & Söhne piano factory in Bayreuth. The original Liszt grand piano from 1873 can be found. Liszt played there with his friends and colleagues and also gave public concerts. Even today there are still regular concerts on the Liszt grand piano.
Further information, opening hours and other details can be found at: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/franz-liszt-museum/
7. Jean-Paul-Museum
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/jean-paul/jean-paul-museum/
Bayreuth owes the Jean Paul Museum to the generous donor Dr. Philipp Hausser, a descendant of Joseph and Rosa Schwabacher, Jean Paul’s former landlord in the house where he lived and died. From his youth onwards, Hausser had assembled a remarkable collection of Jean Paul’s autographs, first editions of his works, literature from his circle, portraits and images.
This, probably the most important private collection on Jean Paul, made it possible to create a museum for the poet in 1980 under the direction of the director Dr. Manfred Eger to set up. The city was able to significantly expand it in 1994 and has since acquired further valuable manuscripts by Jean Paul as well as documents relating to his life and work.
In the Jean Paul anniversary year 2013, it was held for the poet’s 250th birthday, under the direction of Dr. Sven Friedrich, by Dr. Frank Piontek and the exhibition designer Florian Raff redesigned and designed.
The Jean Paul Museum is housed in the former home of Richard Wagner’s daughter Eva and her husband Houston Stewart Chamberlain, whose work in the “Bayreuth Circle” promoted the ethnic reception of Richard Wagner.
Further information, opening hours and other details can be found at: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/jean-paul/jean-paul-museum/
8. The Bayreuth Art Museum(Kunstmuseum, Altes Barockrathaus):
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/kunstmuseum/
Engaging with art slows down your vision and focuses on what is important.
The Bayreuth Art Museum was founded by Dr. Helmut and Constanze Meyer Art Foundation was initiated and opened in 1999 in the renovated old baroque town hall in the heart of the historic city center.
The art museum in Bayreuth is located directly in the city center in the old baroque town hall. From the extensive holdings of various foundations and collections, modern art – especially works on and with paper – is presented here in constantly changing exhibitions. The focus of the Bayreuth Art Museum’s collections is on works from the twentieth century . Epochs represented include expressionism, constructivism and surrealism. You can also find works from the New Objectivity, from post-1945 figuration to Concept Art and Fluxus.
In order to underline the themes of the exhibitions, the museum education department offers an extensive educational program. The various exhibitions are intended to encourage visitors to engage with art and help slow down everyday life. So that you can view the collections from home, the Wagnerstadt Art Museum has its own YouTube channel . Videos about various exhibits are regularly published here.
For further information, please click the link below:
https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/kunstmuseum/
9. Historical Museum (Historisches Museum)
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/en/places-of-interest/museums/historical-museum/
The Historical Museum, founded in 1894, is the oldest museum in the city of Bayreuth and has been located in the Old Latin School on Kirchplatz, in the immediate vicinity of the city church, since 1996.
Its diverse collection documents the cultural and art history of the festival city and its region from the Middle Ages to the present. Over three floors and an area of 1200 square meters, the museum offers its visitors an insight into all essential aspects of urban development with the focus on Bayreuth’s time as a margrave’s residence in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The private collection of Dr. Otto Burkhardt, which is on permanent loan to the Historical Museum. This is probably the world’s most extensive inventory of “Bayreuth faience” from the St. Georgen manufactory, founded in 1715.
The numerous exhibits in the permanent exhibition are thematically supplemented and deepened by regular special exhibitions, events and a cross-generational museum educational offer. There are three rooms with a total of 120 square meters available on the ground floor of the museum for special exhibitions.
Further information, opening hours and other details can be found at:
https://www.historisches-museum-bayreuth.de/museum/ueber-das-museum/
10. The Prehistoric World Museum of Upper Franconia(Urwelt Museum Oberfranken):
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/urweltmuseum/
Information on the earth’s history of Upper Franconia, in particular on the history of life (paleontology), on the rocky subsoil (geology) and on minerals (mineralogy).
The Prehistoric World Museum of Upper Franconia is located directly in the city center of Bayreuth . It is particularly well known among tourists and locals because of the large dinosaur figure in front of the museum entrance. The exhibitions create a picture of the eventful and exciting development of Upper Franconia over the last 500 million years.
The museum offers several rooms with different exhibitions and thematic areas. Changing special exhibitions also complement the extensive program. From the dragon cave to the dinosaur garden to the mineral exhibition, young and old alike will get their money’s worth here. As a special offer, the museum offers various guided tours and workshops for its visitors. When you travel through the Ice Age or look for fossils, you learn a lot about how they came about. The activities offered by the Prehistoric World Museum are particularly popular with school classes of all ages.
In addition to the exhibition rooms, research is also carried out in the Bayreuth Museum. A changing team of international researchers is investigating the question of what information can be read from the bones of ichthyosaurs . The result of this research should help to get a more precise picture of the tropical prehistoric sea at that time.
Source: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/sehenswertes/museen/urweltmuseum/
11. Iwalewahouse Bayreuth:
Photo: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/en/places-of-interest/stage-set-for-afrika/iwalewahouse/
The Iwalewahouse is part of the University of Bayreuth and a place of production and presentation of discourse based, contemporary art.
Through exhibits, University research and teaching, collections and archive, Artists/inside residences and events, the latest developments in contemporary art of Africa is presented and in cooperation with artists, curators and institutions actively further developed. The main topic of the research are the areas of modern and contemporary art, the popular culture and media, especially photography and film.
The Iwalewahouse also offers regularly events like thematic lectures, conferences, concerts, movies and readings. The institution leads an artist/ residence program and forms, as a meeting place of international artists and with exhibits a bridge to the Bayreuth public. The Iwalewahouse also has in Germany this one of a kind collection of modern and contemporary art from Africa, Asia and the Pacific area.
In November 2013 a move to a new residence in the Wölfelstraße took place. The Iwalewahouse is now a part of the University Bayreuth and located in the middle of the city. The Iwalewahouse was opened officially already on November 27.1981 to support the main topic of the University Bayreuth, with the goal to bring non-European art and culture to a wider audience.
Founder and director of the Iwalewahouse was Ulli Beier from 1981 to 1985. When he left to go to Papua-Newguiny , Ronald Ruprecht, former director of the Goethe Institute Nigeria, took over the management. From 1989 to 1996 the house was managed again by Ulli Beier. From January 1997 to September 2001, Till Förster became director of the Africa center. With the leaving of Förster to the University in Basel, Tobias Wendl took over the management of the house. After his being called to the University Berlin, the Iwalewahouse is being managed since March 2010 by Ulf Vierke and Nadine Siegert.
Source: https://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de/en/places-of-interest/stage-set-for-afrika/iwalewahouse/
LOFT 15 