‘The Danube – Route of Emperors and Kings’ is an international working group which includes ten tourism organisations and river cruise lines. These members work to promote their common European heritage and let visitors today travel in the footsteps of Marcus Aurelius, Frederick I, the Habsburgs and many others.
The treasury of the Benedictine Abbey of Melk holds a very special treasure that is presented to the public only every holy time. We are talking about the so-called Melk Cross, a gilded reliquary from the middle of the 14th century, set with precious stones, whose magnificent decoration is only surpassed by its contents: A splinter from the True Cross of Christ.
Such a pious saying may have stood at the beginning of a boat trip along the Noric section of the youngest Austrian World Heritage Site, the Danube Limes, almost 1800 years ago. From the provincial border to Rhaetia in Passau, to Zeiselmauer at the provincial border to Pannonia, we accompany a Roman merchant with his spicy thoughts on his almost 275 kilometer long journey on the Danube – Danubius.
In the 19th century, it was fashionable for ladies of the world to spend a few weeks abroad every year for spa treatment. But why exactly did people go to the spa, and what did courtly women expect from it? And what do spas have to do with Habsburg passions? Much more than these might suggest at first glance …
The Route of Emperors and Kings extends along the Danube from mediaeval Regensburg, through Passau, Linz, Vienna and Bratislava, to the metropolis of Budapest, linking urban cultural centres, historic treasures and world-class landscapes. This is where the history of Central Europe was written, and this history remains very much a part of life today. From Roman times onwards, kings and queens travelled on and along the Danube with their royal entourages. Over the centuries, this age-old route therefore came to be known as the ‘Route of Emperors and Kings’ – and it has lost none of its appeal to this day.
