Schwangau Travel Video Guide

Schwangau Travel Itinerary

• Maps and flag of Germany
• Schwangau travel photos
• Schwangau travel forum
• Flights to Schwangau
• Hotels in Schwangau
• Hostels in Schwangau
• Buy the guide book!

SCHWANGAU , 3km northeast of Fussen, to which it's connected by a frequent bus service, combines the roles of a traditional agricultural community and health resort. Its name literally means "Swan Country", and the presence of a sizeable colony of these aloof birds has cast a spell on rulers of the area down the centuries. As the decoration of their fantasy castles testifies, the nineteenth-century Bavarian kings Maximilian II and his son Ludwig II were obsessed by the swan motif and the medieval Grail legends associated with it.

The only historical monument of note in Schwangau itself is the Baroque Wallfahrtskirche St Coloman , which is set in isolation in the meadows north of town. Dedicated to an eleventh-century Irish martyr, it was designed and decorated by Johann Schmutzer. On the second Sunday of

October, it's the setting for one of Germany's most picturesque and moving religious festivals, the Colomansfest . This features around three hundred horses and some beautifully decorated carriages, which process from the town centre to the surroundings of the church, where an open-air Mass is held. The horses are then ridden round the church three times for good luck, after which beer and food, the essential accompaniments to any Bavarian festival, are dispensed from the nearby tents.

Your Tips For Schwangau

• Bavaria Germany Travel Videos
  Germany Travel Itinerary
  Bavaria (Bayern) is the original home of many of Germany's best-known cliches: beer-swilling Lederhosen-clad men, sausage dogs, cowbells and Alpine villages, Sauerkraut and Wurst and the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein. - Germany
  

• Berlin and Brandenburg Germany Travel Videos
  Germany Travel Itinerary
  Berlin is something of a weather-vane of modern European history, yet its rise to national prominence was a long and slow process. - Germany
  

• Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland Germany Travel Videos
  Germany Travel Itinerary
  Of all the German Lander, the Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) is the one most overlaid by legend. - Germany
  

• Frankfurt am Main Germany Travel Videos
  Germany Travel Itinerary
  Straddling the River Main not long before it converges with the Rhine, FRANKFURT AM MAIN is the capital city Germany has never actually had, having been cheated on more than one occasion of the role to which its history and central geographical position would seem to entitle it. - Germany