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The restaurant serves around 6000 sausages per day.
The ancient city of Regensburg is one of the largest medieval sites in eastern Bavaria.
From the southern bank of Europe’s second-longest river, a neat row of preserved Roman, Romanesque and Gothic buildings stand before a towering twin-spired cathedral. Narrow cobblestone laneways lead into the heart of the city’s Old Town where castle remains sit next to hipster ruin pubs and lively beer gardens.
The 12th century stone bridge across the Danube is considered a masterstroke of medieval construction, while the wiener dog museum is considered one of the must-visit tourist attractions. So is a tiny mint-green building selling sausages.
The 500-year-old Historische Wurstküchl is said to be the oldest continuously open public restaurant in the world. The building was originally erected in 1135 as a construction office while the city’s stone bridge and cathedral was being built. Then called Garkueche auf dem Kranchen, translating to ‘food stall near the crane,’ the outpost would provide sustenance to workers in the form of boiled meat.
It is believed that signature sausages became the main dish at the beginning of the 19th century following the change of ownership. Today, instead of drawing stonemasons and dockworkers, the little stone eatery is an accessible attraction for tourists arriving by river cruise.
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Regensburg is one of the largest medieval sites in eastern Bavaria.
When I visited in the middle of summer, smoke billowed from the black and orange tiled roof, as a crowd of visitors mingled outside waiting for one of the 28 sought-after seats in the dining room.
During the high tourist season, Wurstküchl assembles long wooden benches in front of the building to cater for an additional 100 diners. Right next to the Danube with views across to the tiny island of Stadtamhof, it is arguably a better position to wolf down some bangers.
To feed the masses the restaurant cooks around 6000 of its finger-thin sausages over charcoal every day. Hot from the grill, the smoky, slightly blackened sausages are available in orders of 6, 8 or 10.
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The building was originally erected in 1135.
The most popular way to enjoy them is on a nest of traditional Bavarian spicy sauerkraut, ripened by the barrel in the restaurant’s cellar.
My order was a pair of the snags stuffed into a crispy caraway seed roll with sauerkraut and a generous dollop of the proprietor’s famous wholegrain mustard. Your classic Kiwi sausage on white bread just can’t compete with the depth of flavour.
Other diners could be seen enjoying cheese-filled bratwurstkipferln, deep bowls of potato soup and giant salted pretzels. It almost seems compulsory to accompany your meal with a refreshing glass of weissbier.
You could easily while away an entire afternoon under the shelter of Wurstküchl’s umbrellas, but missing the other attractions in this Unesco World Heritage destination would be the absolute wurst.
Fact file:
Historische Wurstküchl is located next to the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, Germany. See: wurstkuchl.de
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