Thurn und Taxis Palace (St. Emmeram Palace)

St. Emmeram Palace, usually just called Thurn und Taxis Palace, is still home to the princely family whose ancestors built up the postal system of the Holy Roman Empire. The palace grew out of the buildings of the medieval Imperial Abbey of St. Emmeram in Regensburg's old town. On a guided tour you see opulent 19th-century state rooms and, right next to them, a cloister that has barely changed since the Middle Ages.

History: from abbey to residence

The Thurn und Taxis family lived in Regensburg from 1748. From 1741 until the end of the Empire in 1806 its princes represented the emperor as principal commissioners at the Perpetual Diet. The abbey of St. Emmeram dates back to the 8th century and had been an imperial abbey since 1295. After secularisation in 1803 and the end of the Diet, the family threatened to move to Frankfurt. To keep the jobs in town, the ruler Karl Theodor von Dalberg gave them the abbey buildings in 1810, and the Kingdom of Bavaria confirmed this in 1815 as compensation for the postal rights it had taken over.

The residence developed step by step. The neoclassical stables with a riding hall were built 1827–1832, with 16 plaster reliefs by Ludwig Schwanthaler, considered his best surviving work because his pieces in Munich were almost entirely destroyed in the Second World War. In 1883–1888 Prince Maximilian Maria had the architect Max Schultze remodel the palace, adding the 150 m long south wing in neo-Renaissance style. The prince did not see it finished; he died in 1885 aged 23. Even then the palace had its own electricity from a steam-driven dynamo.

What to see

• State rooms: Brussels tapestries and furniture from the former Thurn und Taxis palace in Frankfurt.
• Cloister: the oldest part of the complex, left untouched when the abbey became a palace.
• Crypt chapel: the neo-Gothic burial place of the princes, built into the cloister garden in 1836–1841.
• Stables museum: historic carriages in the former stalls.
• Princely Treasury: a branch of the Bavarian National Museum.
• Courtyard: with the Electors' Fountain; stage for the Thurn und Taxis castle festival in July and a Christmas market in Advent.

Tickets and opening hours (as of October 2026)

• State rooms and cloister: guided tour only, daily at 10:30, 12:30, 14:30 and 16:30. Tours last about 90 minutes and are in German; English audio guides are available at the desk.
• Tour price: €17, reduced €14, children up to 10 free.
• Stables and Treasury: no tour needed, Thursday to Sunday and public holidays 11:00–16:00, last entry 15:30. Admission €6, reduced €4.

Book in the online shop, which opens week by week, or at the museum desk. Tickets bought online are non-refundable.

Good to know

Tours start at the museum shop, on the left of the palace drive between the rose beds. Photography is not allowed indoors. The rooms are not step-free, there is no seating in the state rooms and no toilet breaks during the tour. The palace park only opens for events. After the tour you can eat in the brewery restaurant in the New Stables. Combine the visit with the cathedral, the Stone Bridge and the old town for a full day in Regensburg.