"weekend in Freising" Top 5 Page for this destination Freising by brendareed

Many towns in Germany have adopted a mascot of some sort – lions, dragons, and pigs are some of the mascots that we have seen. These mascots are then decorated and prominently displayed in front of shops and in other places where they will be seen.

In Freising, the mascot is the brown bear. Painted statues are around the town, a local fountain is a bear playing in the water, and the local brewery has a bear wearing a monk’s robe and tonsure while carrying casks of beer.

Why a bear you might ask? Saint Corbinian was a monk in the 8th century that established a Benedictine monastery in Freising, just northeast of Munich. According to legend, St. Corbinian was traveling to Rome when a bear attacked and killed Corbinian’s pack horse. This bear was commanded by Corbinian to carry the load of the horse he killed, which he did…all the way to Rome where Corbinian released the bear from his burden and the bear returned to Bavaria. One will often see a bear near Corbinian in artworks, similar to other saints and their symbols. The bishopric of Freising has this bear in its coat of arms as well as the papal coat of arms of the recent Pope Benedict XVI (retired in 2013) who, as Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, was appointed to Freising-Munich area in 1977.

We visited Freising on our way to Munich, stopping to have lunch at the local brewery and touring the town. After a wonderful lunch at the Weihenstephan Brauerei, which claims to be the oldest brewery in the world, we wandered around the town. The cathedral sits on one of the hills of Freising and the brewery is on the other, so from each venue we had a good view of the other main feature of the town.

The center of town has colorful gabled buildings, colorfully dressed bears, and friendly people. Our visit in Freising ended all too soon as we were soon on our way down the road.