Alte Residenz

Alte Residenz stands in Passau’s historic old town, directly opposite the cathedral and beside Residenzplatz. Its connected buildings combine Romanesque, Renaissance, and Baroque features.

A Romanesque portal from 1180 survives. From the late eleventh century until the early eighteenth century, Passau’s prince-bishops lived and governed here. Fires, extensions, and rebuilds shaped the complex between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, including major work by Leonard Uttner and Christoforo Canevale. The Saalbau links it with the Neue Residenz, whose former court library now houses a museum about the Diocese of Passau.

Inside, eighteenth-century rooms stand alongside decorated halls with stucco by the Carlone school and Giovanni Battista d’Allio. The eastern court chapel has a 1693 portal by Balthasar Vecchio. Its secularised interior now serves as a meeting hall for the regional court, while the Zengerhof section continues to house the regional court along Zengergasse. Five representative rooms, an audience hall, an upper court chapel, and the Indian trellis room complete the upper floor. The complex is wheelchair accessible.