Swabia - Art & History between Augsburg & Stuttgart

Present-day ‘Schwaben’ encompasses parts of the German federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. To many Germans, Swabia is the land of the thrifty, of wheeler-dealers and inventors: the Fuggers of Augsburg were once the world’s mightiest bankers, while today the Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall is Germany’s biggest building society; Mercedes and Porsche are both based in Stuttgart, and Albert Einstein hailed from Ulm. Yet, in terms of cultural tourism — apart from the odd stopping point on the renowned Romantic Road — the region between Augsburg and Stuttgart has quite unjustly been left off the international itinerary. A paleolithic lion man, carved from a mammoth tusk, ‘roars’ in Ulm, while wonderful 15th-century wood and stone carvings await in the picture-perfect towns of Nördlingen and Blaubeuren. Augsburg, home of the Holbein family of painters, will present itself as a proud Renaissance metropolis with outstanding museums, while James Stirling’s postmodernist Staatsgalerie at Stuttgart and the Sammlung Würth in Schwäbisch Hall harbour first-class collections of 20th-century art. Mediaeval churches dominate the centres of Ulm and Schwäbisch Gmünd, while Baroque abbeys and Rococo pilgrimage churches at Wiblingen, Günzburg and Neresheim adorn the lovely countryside of rolling hills and dramatic rock formations of the Swabian Jura. This Art Pursuits Abroad Study Tour will introduce you to an underrated part of Germany and enhance your knowledge of German art and culture from pre-history to the present.