Goldenes Kreuz

Did the Goldenes Kreuz always shimmer with such golden stories? I see you looking at the façade, imagining emperors and kings within. Let’s step back in time, to the heart of Regensburg’s Haidplatz, to the Goldenes Kreuz. This former patrician castle, a blend of medieval tower and a newer residential building, has held court here since around 1250. The Goldenes Kreuz wasn’t always a hotel. Originally, it was home to Regensburg families like the Weltenburgers, then the Zellers, Kraffts, Seidls, and more. Imagine, in the 16th century, the Goldenes Kreuz transformed into a guesthouse fit for royalty. Emperors and kings graced its halls. Emperor Ferdinand I. stopped here in 1530 on his way to Aachen. Emperor Charles V stayed three times between 1532 and 1541 during Imperial Assemblies. And it was within these very walls that Charles V, already widowed, encountered Barbara Blomberg, a Regensburg local. Their meeting is immortalized in the inscription on the Goldenes Kreuz tower, hinting at a love story. Their son, Don Juan de Austria, would become a hero of the Battle of Lepanto. The Goldenes Kreuz continued to host the powerful. In 1633, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, commander of the Swedish forces, stayed here. Even in 1863, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria was a guest. His interest in Don Juan de Austria prompted the hotel owners to commission a portrait with an inscription recounting the tale of Charles V and Barbara. Kings, ministers, and even Kaiser Wilhelm I. all found respite at the Goldenes Kreuz. A unique feature of the building was a “swinging dance floor” installed in 1865. The “Kreuzbälle” held here were grand social events. The rise of the Maximilianstraße and the new Parkhotel Maximilian led to the Goldenes Kreuz’s decline. It closed in 1898. Decades later, after extensive renovations, the building found new life as a café in 1968 and was fully reborn as the Hotel Goldenes Kreuz in 2005. Look up at the building. Beneath the unified façade, added in 1862, lie centuries of whispers and laughter, secrets and celebrations. The Goldenes Kreuz still holds stories. It is your turn to write yours.