The short version
- The guided tour is in the ticket. The Bavarian Palace Administration says the admission ticket entitles you to join one, at no extra cost: English daily at 11am and 3pm, German every full and half hour, about thirty minutes. It is not compulsory and it is not the only way in. How the tours run.
- An adult pays about ten euros, and under-18s pay nothing. Students over 18 from general and vocational schools also go free with valid ID. Buy at the cash desk or online; online holders skip the queue, and tickets cannot be returned or exchanged. Tickets and what they include.
- Three parts of the Residenz are free to enter: the Court Church, the Court Garden and the Martin von Wagner Museum in the south wing. What’s free to see.
- The ceiling is the reason most people come. Tiepolo painted the staircase vault in 1752/53, around 600 square metres of it, over a span of 18 by 30 metres with nothing holding it up. The staircase and its fresco.
- Twelve guided days to choose from. The winter half-day includes “Entry to the Residence”; the others are guided walks and wine tastings in the old town and Romantic Road day trips to Rothenburg with the transport handled. Every tour, and what each listing says.
What the ticket covers, and what to book around it
The two halves of a Würzburg day, side by side.
Inside the admission ticket
- The staterooms, including the Staircase, the White Hall and the Imperial Hall
- A guided tour at no extra cost — English daily at 11am and 3pm, German every full and half hour, about thirty minutes
- Free entry for everyone under 18, and for students over 18 from general and vocational schools with valid ID
- Bought at the cash desk or online. Online holders skip the queue; tickets cannot be returned or exchanged
Free to enter
- The Court Church
- The Court Garden, open daily until dusk and 8 pm at the latest
- The Martin von Wagner Museum, Residenzplatz 2, Tor A, entered from the courtyard beside the Court Church
- Residenzplatz itself, and the south front of the building from it
The walk through the palace, and the day around it
Where you actually go, in order, and why each stop is on the list.
Roughly two hours covers everything below that is inside the building. The church, the museum and the garden are free to enter, and the last two stops are where a guided day takes over.
- Residenzplatz and Tor B — The address and the way in, about twenty minutes on foot from the main station. The ticket desk is here, and there are 300 chargeable parking places in front of the building with 15 coach places on Husarenstrasse.
- The Vestibule and the Garden Hall — The ground-floor rooms you cross first, and part of the central block that came through the raid of 16 March 1945 when the roofs did not.
- The Staircase — Balthasar Neumann’s vault, unsupported, 23 metres at its highest and spanning 18 by 30 metres. Nothing stands under it, which is the point of it.
- Tiepolo’s ceiling — Painted over that vault in 1752/53 by a man summoned from Venice: around 600 square metres, which the Bavarian Palace Administration calls the largest ceiling fresco ever painted. What it shows.
- The White Hall — Between the staircase and the Imperial Hall, and one of the five spaces the sources list as surviving 1945.
- The Imperial Hall — The Kaisersaal, the room the guided tour is built around and the one the winter listing names in its own description.
- The Mirror Cabinet — The fourth of the rooms this site writes up in detail, after the Imperial Hall, the White Hall and the Court Church. What there is to see inside.
- The Court Church — Free to enter, and most visitors walk past the door without knowing that.
- The Martin von Wagner Museum — Also free, in the south wing off the courtyard beside the Court Church. Antiquities Tuesday to Saturday 10 to 1.30, the picture gallery 1.30 to 5, and the two collections alternate on Sundays.
- The Court Garden — Behind the palace, laid out mainly between 1759 and 1770, free, and open daily until dusk and 8 pm at the latest. What’s free to see.
- The old town and the Alte Mainbrücke — The bridge where a glass of Franconian wine is drunk standing up. Two of the listings here pour one on it, and the old-town walk passes the cathedral and the Falkenhaus on the way.
- The Romantic Road — The long version of the day: south by coach to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is ninety minutes from here.
The palace sells its own ticket at its own desk, with the tour already in it; the old town and the Romantic Road are where a guided day earns its place — a licensed guide on foot, a glass of wine on the bridge, or a coach south with the driving done. All twelve tours, with what each listing actually says about the Residenz.
How booking a guided day works
Work out what you want a guide for
The staterooms come with their own tour in the ticket, so book a guide for what the ticket does not cover: the old town on foot, the wine on the Alte Mainbrücke, or the road south to Rothenburg with the driving done.
Read what the listing itself says
Every card here repeats the operator’s own wording on what is included. The winter half-day includes palace entry; the walks and wine tours cover the old town; the Munich coach is a Rothenburg day that starts and ends in Munich.
Pick a date
Availability and prices come live from GetYourGuide, with free cancellation on most tours. Three of the twelve are priced per group, not per person.
Pick up the palace ticket at the desk
At the cash desk on Residenzplatz, or online to skip the queue — nothing to pre-book, and the included tour times are posted there.
Book the guided walk through the old town
An hour and a half on foot with a licensed guide through the old town — the cathedral, the Falkenhaus, the bridge and the stories behind them. Palace admission is bought separately at the desk, with its own tour included. Live dates below.
Three ways to be shown the old town
Forty minutes sitting down, ninety minutes walking, or two hours that ends with wine on the bridge. All three are about the town; palace admission is bought at the desk and brings its own tour with it.
| Würzburg: City Tour with the Bimmelbahn Train | The standard walkWürzburg: Guided Walking Tour | Würzburg Old Town Tour with Wine Tasting on the Alte Mainbrücke | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | €11 per person | €17 per person | €49 per person |
| How long | 40 minutes | 1.5 hours | 2 hours |
| On foot? | No, a road train | Yes, throughout | Yes, throughout |
| The Residenz | Passes the palace | Passes the palace | Old town and bridge |
| Wine | None | None | Three Franconian wines, 0.1 l each, 16 and over |
| Rating | 4.4 from 1,585 reviews | 4.5 from 599 reviews | 4.7 from 80 reviews |
| Best for | Tired legs, and children | A first morning in the city | An evening that ends on the Alte Mainbrücke |
| View → | Book this → | View → |
Gallery
Vines, cellars and the river
Terraced vineyards, oak casks, clipped hedges and a glass of Franconian white on the way back over the bridge — the Würzburg afternoon that comes with the ticket.
Guided days in and around Würzburg
The winter half-day goes inside the Residenz and says so in its own inclusions. The walks and the road train show you the town around it, the winery tours pour Franconian wine in a family cellar, and the Romantic Road coaches — from Würzburg, Frankfurt and Munich — take you south to Rothenburg with the driving done. All twelve, with what each listing actually says.
Includes entryWürzburg in winter: Residence, Old Town and mulled wine
The standard walkWürzburg: Guided Walking Tour
Most bookedWürzburg: City Tour with the Bimmelbahn Train
Wine on the bridgeWürzburg Old Town Tour with Wine Tasting on the Alte Mainbrücke
Family winery tastingWürzburg: guided tour of the wine cellar incl. trio wine tasting
Rothenburg from MunichFrom Munich: Rothenburg and Romantic Road Day Trip by Bus
Curated traveller reviews
What travellers say about the guided days in and around Würzburg — the old-town walks, the road train, the wine tours and the Romantic Road coaches — quoted verbatim, in the language it was written in.
Sehr guter Guide (Herr Schäfer), der sehr souverän und unterhaltsam über jegliches Thema informiert hat. Eine sehr kurzweilige und interessante Stadtführung, bei der die Zeit wie im Flug verging. Absolut empfehlenswert!
We wove in and out of the old town streets and saw it all !
Sehr abwechslungsreich und in Kombination mit den Weinen wirklich lohnenswert. Steht und fällt natürlich mit dem Guide und den Gruppenteilnehmern. Mit Karin als Guide einen Glücksgriff und die Truppe war echt super! 5 Sterne.
We Really enjoyed this tour. It was a small group with lots of wine samples, knowledge & giggles! Thanks for a wonderful day! 🥂
Elisabeth Nickel war superpünktlich und hat uns nicht nur bestens durch die Altstadt geführt, sondern auch versucht, Schattenplätze zu finden angesichts der extrem heißen Witterung. Es war abwechslungsreich und es gab viel Hintergrundinformationen sowie lustige Details, am Ende ein paar Tipps für den Rest des Tages, Ruheplätze und Gastro-Tipps. Vielen Dank für eine schöne Führung mit unserer kleinen Familie (4 Personen).
Great day out! Enjoyable stop at Harburg medieval castle. Rothenburg was just gorgeous... I highly recommend climbing Rödeturm tower for magnificent views over the old town.
Ratings and reviews are the operators’ live GetYourGuide figures. Read our full tour reviews ›
Four things people get wrong before they arrive
Answered here so you are not working them out in the queue on Residenzplatz.
Do I have to book a guided tour separately?
No. The Bavarian Palace Administration says the admission ticket entitles you to join a guided tour, at no extra cost — English daily at 11am and 3pm, German every full and half hour, about thirty minutes. It is not compulsory either. How the tours run.
What is free to see?
Three parts of it. The Court Church, the Court Garden and the Martin von Wagner Museum in the south wing are all free to enter, alongside the ticketed staterooms. What’s free to see.
Can I book a tour of the wine cellar under the palace?
The Staatlicher Hofkeller under the Residenz runs its own tours and tastings on its own terms; the two cellar tours we list are at a family winery in the town, with tastings included. The cellar under the palace.
How long does the Residenz take?
About two hours inside covers the staterooms and the tour that comes with the ticket, and the garden will take whatever you give it. See how long to allow, what it is like with children, and is it worth it.
Can’t make these dates?
Browse more available Würzburg Residence tours and find one that fits your schedule — all with instant confirmation and free cancellation.
A local guide’s guide to the Würzburg Residence
Most palaces sell you the building and then sell you the guide. This one includes the guide: the Bavarian Palace Administration, which runs the Residenz, states that the admission ticket entitles you to join a guided tour — English at 11am and 3pm every day, German every full and half hour, about thirty minutes either way. An adult ticket is about ten euros and everyone under eighteen goes in free. That leaves the rest of the day for the town, the wine and the Romantic Road, which is what the guided days below are for.
What the ticket covers
The ticket covers the staterooms. The Court Church and the Court Garden are free to enter — the operator says both in those words — and so is the Martin von Wagner Museum, the university collection in the south wing at Residenzplatz 2, Tor A, reached from the courtyard beside the Court Church. Buy at the cash desk or online; online holders skip the queue, and no ticket can be returned or exchanged afterwards. There is a slightly lower reduced rate, and students over eighteen from general and vocational schools go free on a valid ID. Figures move, so ours live in the table on the tickets page rather than in this sentence.
The tour is included, and it is not compulsory
Both halves of that matter. Some visitors arrive braced to be herded through in a group; others plan to go round at their own pace. German tours run every full and half hour, the last at 4.30pm from April to October and 3.30pm from November to March. Groups of fifteen or more, and school classes, have to book six working days ahead. Children under fourteen may only join a tour with an adult. Everything else about it is a decision made at the door. How the tours run.
The staircase is the argument for the ticket
Balthasar Neumann built a vault over the staircase spanning eighteen metres by thirty and rising twenty-three at its highest, with nothing underneath holding it up. In 1752 and 1753 Tiepolo, summoned from Venice for the job, painted the underside of it: around six hundred square metres, which the palace administration calls the largest ceiling fresco ever painted. That claim is theirs and is worth attributing rather than repeating flat, but the vault is measurable and the painting is over your head for as long as you care to stand under it. What the ceiling shows.
What 1945 left
On 16 March 1945 a British air raid nearly destroyed the palace. The central block came through it — the Vestibule, the Garden Hall, the Staircase, the White Hall and the Imperial Hall — with the roofs gone. John Davis Skilton, an American Monuments officer, arrived that June and was instrumental in preserving the art, and reconstruction ran from 1945 to 1987. Most of what a visitor walks through today is that work rather than the 1740s: the surviving core is a short list and the rest was put back. The building became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981, a few years before the rebuilding finished. The raid and the rebuilding.
The cellar under the palace, and the cellars you can book
The Staatlicher Hofkeller runs beneath the Residenz through the corridors of the former Prince-Bishop’s court cellar: 4,557 square metres of it and 891 metres of corridor, and Neumann was asked to build an excellent wine cellar into the plans. The estate offers cellar tours and tastings on its own terms and publishes no dates, durations or prices for them, so this site prints none. The two wine-cellar tours in our catalogue are at a family winery in the town — a cellar walk with a trio tasting, and on the longer version five wines with pastries out in the vineyards — which is the bookable way to taste Franconian wine in Würzburg. The cellar under the palace.
What a guided day adds
Twelve listings. The winter half-day includes “Entry to the Residence” and walks the staircase and the Imperial Hall before the old town and a mulled wine. The guided walking tour and the private walk cover the old town with a licensed guide, with the palace described from Residenzplatz. The wine tours pour Franconian wine on the Alte Mainbrücke or in a family cellar. And the Romantic Road coaches take you south to Rothenburg with the driving done — from Würzburg main station, from Frankfurt with a photo stop at the Residenz on the way back, or from Munich as a day built around Rothenburg and Harburg. Three of the twelve are priced per group, which suits families and small parties. All twelve, with what each listing says.
If you have one day
Walk the twenty minutes up from the main station, or take tram 1, 3 or 5 to “Dom”. Do the staterooms first, join whichever tour is next since it is already in the ticket, then leave through the Court Church and into the Court Garden, laid out mostly between 1759 and 1770 and open daily until dusk, 8 pm at the latest. That is the palace done by early afternoon. The rest of the day is where a guided walk through the old town, a glass on the Alte Mainbrücke or the coach south to Rothenburg comes in. One day in Würzburg, in order.
Frequently asked questions
Is a guided tour included in the Würzburg Residence ticket?
Yes. The Bavarian Palace Administration’s own wording is that the admission ticket entitles you to join a guided tour, at no extra cost. English tours run daily at 11am and 3pm; German tours run every full and half hour, with the last one at 4.30pm from April to October and 3.30pm from November to March. They last about thirty minutes, and joining one is not compulsory. The tour that comes with the ticket.
How much does the Würzburg Residence cost?
An adult ticket is about ten euros, with a slightly lower reduced rate. Everyone under 18 goes in free, and so do students over 18 from general and vocational schools with valid ID. Tickets come from the cash desk or online, online holders skip the queue, and they cannot be returned or exchanged. Current figures are on the tickets page.
What can you see at the Würzburg Residence for free?
The Court Church and the Court Garden are both free — the operator says so in those words — and so is the Martin von Wagner Museum, the university collection in the south wing at Residenzplatz 2, Tor A, entered from the courtyard beside the Court Church. The garden is open daily until dusk, 8 pm at the latest. What’s free to see.
What are the opening hours?
From April to October the palace opens daily 9am to 6pm, last entry 5.15pm; from November to March, daily 10am to 4.30pm, last entry 4pm. It closes on 1 January, Shrove Tuesday, and 24, 25 and 31 December. The Court Garden keeps its own hours and shuts at dusk. Hours through the year.
What is the ceiling fresco, and how big is it?
Tiepolo was summoned from Venice and painted the staircase vault in 1752/53. The Bavarian Palace Administration puts it at around 600 square metres and calls it the largest ceiling fresco ever painted. The vault beneath it is unsupported, 23 metres at its highest, spanning 18 by 30 metres. Tiepolo’s staircase ceiling.
Do any tours include entry to the Würzburg Residence?
The winter half-day does: a three-hour listing whose inclusions read “Entry to the Residence” and whose description walks the staircase and the Imperial Hall. It runs on winter dates. The Frankfurt coach stops at the palace for photographs on the way back, and the walks and wine tours cover the old town around it. All twelve, compared.
Can I visit the wine cellar under the palace?
The Staatlicher Hofkeller lies inside the Residenz, in the corridors of the former Prince-Bishop’s court cellar — 4,557 square metres of it and 891 metres of corridor — and Neumann was asked to build in an excellent wine cellar. The estate offers cellar tours and tastings on its own terms and publishes no times or prices for them. The two cellar tours we list are at a family winery in the town, with tastings included. The cellar under the palace.
How do I get there from the station?
It is about a twenty-minute walk. Otherwise tram 1, 3 or 5 from the central station to “Dom”, or buses 12, 14, 20 and 28 to “Mainfranken Theater”. Driving, there are 300 chargeable parking places in front of the Residence and 15 coach places on Husarenstrasse. Getting to the Residenz.
Is the Würzburg Residence worth visiting with children?
Under-18s go in free, and children under 14 may only join a guided tour with an adult. The garden and the road train usually keep younger children happy, and the palace itself is a half-hour tour. Visiting with children and is it worth it.
Still have questions? Email us [email protected]