Domplatz

The Domplatz sits directly in front of St. Stephan's Cathedral and forms the highest point of Passau's old town — a topographic oddity in a city otherwise shaped by narrow lanes and rivers pressing close on three sides. The square took its present Baroque character after the great city fire of 1662, when Bishop Karl von Löwenstein commissioned an ambitious rebuilding in the style of northern Italian Baroque. The result is a broad, sun-caught forecourt that opens an unusually generous view of the cathedral's facade while offering sightlines across the Altstadt rooftops toward the confluence of the Danube and Inn. Cafés line the edges of the square, and in Advent it hosts one of the region's more atmospheric Christmas markets.