Donauworth

What a delightful town : the sort of place to live. I can picture it so well :

a small ancient town of about 20,000 on the Romantic Road at the junction of the Wornitz and Danube

rivers. Our day trip in September 2020 was part of our Baroque Church Crawl. I found out there is

even a connection to our home town of St Albans. John Churchill Duke of Marlborough fought a

battle here, taking the town in the War of the Spanish Succession in. John lived much of his life

in St Albans because his fiery wife Sarah was born here.

What is now the Parish Church, was an 11th century  Benedictine foundation and centre of pilgrimage.

The present building is from 1717-1722 by J Schmutzer to designs by F Beer. It has been called a

miniature Weingarten : a fine wall pillar church with convex galleries, crossing and cupola almost at the

centre.

The fine high altar is by Franz Schmutzer and paintings by JG Bergmuller.

The frescoes were originally to have been by Asam but are by Franz Karl Strauder.

The central saucer dome is a replacement and only dates from 1940.

The sanctuary apse is small but embellished like a facade with gable and volutes.