Beilngries: Town Towers, Waterways and Culture

Beilngries combines medieval town history with a landscape shaped by water. Ten of the fifteen original town towers have been preserved; their construction began in 1407. At the same time, the town is surrounded by the Altmühl, Sulz, Main-Danube Canal and Ludwig Canal. Culture and water therefore give your stay two distinct focal points.

Town Towers, Churches and Town History

A walking tour of Beilngries takes one hour and covers two kilometres. This gives you a clearly defined timeframe for exploring the town on foot. One of its most striking religious buildings is the Church of Our Lady: this Rococo building is considered the town’s most significant religious structure. Construction began in 1753 under Maurizio Pedetti, the prince-bishop’s director of court buildings. The town parish church of St Walburga makes its own impression. With its brightly glazed spires, it forms a striking focal point within the ring described by the historic towers of Beilngries’s old town.

In its present form, Hirschberg Castle preserves several elements of the former castle complex: the castle wall, the Counts’ Building, the keep and the castle chapel. Anyone interested in architectural history can view these surviving features as a tangible way to explore the site’s past. The Beilngries Toy Museum offers a different perspective on everyday history. It displays old toys of every kind, collected by the Beilngries-Kinding Cultural History Association (Kulturhistorischer Verein Beilngries-Kinding e. V.) and brought together in an exhibition. The collection includes a large-scale model railway layout and special play areas where children can play.

Experience Waterways and Technology

Water shapes Beilngries in more than just the landscape. On the outskirts of town, a two-storey harbourmaster’s house, a goods shed and a quay wall with an iron crane were built between 1836 and 1845 as parts of the Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal. These structures point to the waterway’s technological and economic history. Since 2017, the Erlebniswelt Wasserstraße Information and Visitor Centre has been located in the Gösselthalmühle, right beside the Main-Danube Canal. It explores waterways, technology, shipping and nature; at interactive stations, visitors can discover topics related to shipping and waterways.

If you would rather be out on the water yourself, you can explore the Altmühl from Beilngries by canoeing. The town thus offers several ways to experience water: historic canal structures, insights into shipping and technology, and an activity on the river. Which of these you make the focus can help shape the character of your stay.

Nature and Views Around Beilngries

The four waterways—the Altmühl, Sulz, Main-Danube Canal and Ludwig Canal—frame a natural landscape also shaped by the power of water. The Wishing-Rod Path offers views over Beilngries, the Main-Danube Canal and the Altmühl Valley. Another distinctive natural feature is the Malm strata geotope on Arzberg. Its quarry faces are 70 metres high; the former quarry documents a deposition period of around five million years. The path and the geotope offer different perspectives: one looks out over the surrounding area, while the other provides a visible glimpse into its geological history.

Culture in the Wider Eichstätt Destination

The wider Eichstätt destination also offers its own cultural and nature-related attractions. The Jura Museum Eichstätt focuses on fossils from the Solnhofen Plattenkalk; it is also home to the original Eichstätt specimen of Archaeopteryx. Willibaldsburg Castle was built in 1355 by Bishop Berthold Burggraf von Zollern and served as the bishop’s residence until 1725. Among the surviving features of the 420-metre-long castle are walls and bastions, the arsenal, the 63-metre-long gate hall and the Gemmingen Building with its two towers. In the 1,500-square-metre Bastion Garden, the Hortus Eystettensis, destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War, was brought back to life after 400 years; visitors can discover many of the original plant species there. The Eichstätt Fossil Trail adds another option: a moderately challenging, nine-kilometre circular route for families.

This makes it easy to match your preferred travel style with the different themes Beilngries itself has to offer.

Discover more destinations: Kinding, Titting, Altmannstein, Schernfeld, Mörnsheim, Denkendorf, Böhmfeld, Kösching.

Go to the wider travel overview: Eichstätt.