Genre: Nonfiction—History & Travel
Completed: 22 September 2013
Summary & Review:
Atop a hill just outside of the Bavarian city of Regensburg, Germany, stands a neoclassical temple built as a hall of fame for distinguished and important Germans from throughout history. Commissioned by King Ludwig I, “Walhalla” houses hundreds of marble busts and commemorative plaques honoring greats from Goethe to Bach and Dürer to Einstein. This book, the official guide to the monument, contains color reproductions of all the busts with accompanying text explaining why the person was chosen to be included in Walhalla, as well as a short history behind the structure and its patron.
We went to Walhalla and another King Ludwig I monument—Liberation Hall at Kelheim—recently and we really enjoyed them. Walhalla was particularly interesting. The location was beautiful, sitting elevated over a particularly large basin area along the Danube. And, being a little bit of a history buff, I really enjoyed seeing a lot of these famous personalities in sculpture form. This book is an excellent guide. It was able to provide interesting back-story behind the people included in the monument and did so in only eighty pages.
Rating: 7.0
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