Passauer Tölpel
The Passauer Tölpel is a stone head sculpture in Passau’s old town, beside the wall of the Landratsamt near St Stephen’s Cathedral. Short hair, large eyes and thick, grinning lips define its face.
Local tradition links the head to a figure from the cathedral, destroyed in the city fire of 1662. After rebuilding, the cathedral towers carried flat roofs. In 1696, Augsburg priest Gansler mocked Passau’s residents as Dölpel, connecting the nickname with those rooflines. The name later became part of Passau’s identity.
After standing at Veste Oberhaus from 1884, the sculpture returned near the cathedral in 2003. Its image appears on souvenirs, literature, newspaper humour and Passauer Tölpel honey gingerbread.
- City
- Passau
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Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Passau. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.