WALK THE ‘WALK OF WAGNER’

Just in time for the 2013 Bayreuth Festival season, and following a theme of “The Life Stages of Richard Wagner,” visitors to Germany’s Bayreuth are now able to walk in the footsteps of Richard Wagner, the city’s composer and the composer most linked to the development of German opera. Wagner is currently celebrating his 200th anniversary. Introduced this summer, The “Walk of Wagner” leads visitors to nearly all tourist attractions in Bayreuth that are attributed to Richard Wagner. The route begins at Wahnfried (the name given by Richard Wagner to his villa in Bayreuth), which is also where the grave of Wagner is located. Each stop is outlined by a mark on the pavement modeled after the Wagner anniversary logo, and indicated by a sequence of concrete cubes and dice between the train station and the festival site.

Among the locations included on the route are the former Restoration Angermann (a restaurant from Wagner’s days notable because of Wagner’s eccentric ordering practices for both his dog and himself), the Meysenbug-Haus (where Wagner’s close friend and ardent feminist Malwida von Meysenbug lived), and Wagner’s first place of residence in Bayreuth. In front of the tourist information centre, visitors will find a life-sized sculpture of Wagner sitting on a park bench. To explain each stop, visitors can access a “Walk of Wagner” iPhone app or mobile guide, provided by Bayreuth Marketing and Tourism. Themes along the walk will vary annually, with new thematic installations set on top of the concrete cubes. (http://www.bayreuth-tourismus.de)