About Bavaria

Bavaria lies in the southeast of Germany. It has borders to Austria and Chekia.
In former times it was an independent kingdom. But in 1871 the last Bavarian king made an aliance with Preusen and so the Deutsche Reich was founded. Now Bavaria is part of Germany, but culturally it is/was closer to Austria as to northern Germany. As the only of the 16 German Bundesländer (states) it is a Freistaat, which means it has a little bit bigger souverainity.

Nowadays Bavaria consists of 5 provinces (Regierungsbezirke): Oberbayern, Niederbayern, Oberpfalz, Schwaben und Franken. Only the first three are considered as Old-Bavaria and only there „real“ Bavarian is spoken. Fränkisch (=Frankonian) and Schwäbisch is related to Bavarian, but is considered as seperate dialects.

 

 

The two most famous places of Bavaria lie both in Oberbayern: München (Munich, the capital) and Schloss Neuschwanstein (the fairytail castle). But there are a lot of other places well worth visiting! Smaller cities like Regensburg, Garmisch etc. are lovely and there are a lot more gigantic castles, old ruins and magnificant churches, even in the countryside. Not to forget the Bavarian cuisine, which is the far most distinctive in Germany with hearty dishes like Schweinshaxn, Sauerbraten, Semmelknödel etc.