Passau travel guides

Passau's Altes Rathaus anchors the Old Town between the Danube promenade and the Glass Museum, with painted facades, a 38-metre tower and a twice-daily carillon. This guide explains what the exterior offers on its own, what the Gothic staircase leads to, and how to confirm current access before you plan around the council chambers.

In the Innstadt lanes, a 12th-century craftsmen's house sits directly on the foundations of the Late Roman Kastell Boiotro. The exposed cellar walls, the trapezoid fort plan and funerary stones recovered from the Inn riverbed make this a compact, focused stop for anyone tracing the Danube Limes through Passau.

High above the Innstadt, Passau's baroque Mariahilf pilgrimage church is reached by a covered stairway of 321 steps beginning at Neutorgraben. The church holds a venerated Marian image that is a copy of a Cranach painting, and the hilltop forecourt opens a broad view across the Inn side of the city.

Niedernburg is not a walk-through ruin or a classic visitable abbey; it is a living convent precinct whose church and former monastic buildings sit above the Inn, with the Fresco Museum Niedernburg as the one documented barrier-free interior. This guide explains what remains, how the steps shape your route, and how to pair it with the Innstadt.

The Oberhausmuseum fills the historic walls of Veste Oberhaus above Passau. This guide explains what the museum ticket includes, how the exhibitions differ from the fortress itself, the access limits that matter, and how much time to set aside for the hill.

Passau's excursion boats leave from the riverfront below the old town, close to the Town Hall, where they head out to the meeting point of the Danube, Inn and Ilz. This guide covers where the landing is, how to walk to it from the Altstadt, what the three-river cruise shows, and how to plan around sailings.

The Glasmuseum Passau occupies a historic old-town building at Schrottgasse 2, on the corner of Rathausplatz, and presents Central European glass from 1650 to 1950 with a strong 19th-century and Art Nouveau emphasis. This guide explains what is inside, which rooms to prioritise, how long to allow, and whether it deserves a slot compared with Veste Oberhaus and the city's other collections.

Passau's St. Stephen's Cathedral holds the largest church organ in Europe - around 17,974 pipes played from one console. Its concerts run in two very different formats, and a restoration means the instrument no longer sounds at full extent. Here is how tickets, timing and seating actually work, and what to verify before you travel.

Plan Passau with landmark visitor guides, practical itinerary choices, family ideas and links to researched city guides and attraction details.

St. Stephen's Cathedral rises at the highest point of Passau's Altstadt, its white towers and blue-green domes visible from the riverbanks below. This guide explains the baroque rebuild after the 1662 fire, the interior highlights, the world's largest cathedral organ, free nave entry, opening hours and accessibility.

The Dreiflüsseeck is the open-air eastern tip of Passau's old town, where the Danube and Inn visibly converge and the Ilz joins the river system from behind the castle ridge. This guide separates the free ground-level viewpoints from the ticketed Veste Oberhaus panorama, explains why the water boundary shifts with flow and light, and suggests how to combine the confluence with the fortress and the Altstadt.

Veste Oberhaus sits on the Georgsberg above Passau, and a single museum admission covers all exhibitions plus the observation tower, St. George's Chapel and the Batterie Linde viewpoint. This guide explains what is inside, which parts are free to roam, and how to shape a short or half-day visit.