St. Stephan's Cathedral — Attraction in Passau

We were on the Viking River Cruise, Grand European Tour (Amsterdam/Germany (Cologne,Koblenz, Miltenberg, Bamberg, Nuremberg) and now Passau, Germany. Passau is a quaint town, easy to walk thru it and around it, especially along the walking/biking trail along the Inn River. It’s hard to miss St.Stephen Cathedral and once inside, it is majestic that no amount of photos can take in all the frescoes, sculptures and rich history. We were fortunate to have had two days here so we spent several hours in the church and on Sunday attended the mass at 11:30am. The sound of the organ music was also amazing. I spent time in the prayer section of the church, lighting several candles. This cathedral deserves several hours of your time and it is well worth it to find a walking tour to get the insight and interesting facts about the lives of the townspeople and the...

The church is a magnificent example of art and architecture. Beautiful art work on the ceilings, and just an amazing piece of architecture. Obviously the renovations at the moment do not do full justice to the building to be appreciated, but notwithstanding, you can clearly get a great sense of the cathedral.

The pipe organ, with its ~17000 pipes, I'm sure is an incredible musical instrument, but the concert we attended, was simply horrid. It sounded like the organist felt obliged to prove there were in fact 17000 pipes. It was a mismash of bits of music, mashed together and some of it was very dark. I personally do not think it showed what a remarkable instrument they have.

If only considering the church, this is a five star place to visit, but the pipe organ pulls it down to...

Our visit to St. Stephan's Cathedral was excellent! This is a beautiful baroque cathedral built in the 1600's with much gilding inside and famous frescos. The highlight though is the church organ system which actually incorporates five organs (with one in the dome!) all played by a single organist. This provides truly incredible surround sound! There are daily noon-time concerts in the late summer/early fall. Admission is just a few Euros. There are no assigned seats so come early. Try to sit as close to the middle as possible. The concert lasts about one hour. We were told that the baroque concept was to make one feel as if one were in heaven already. That certainly came true during the...