Freising and Weihenstephan

Freising's cathedral stands on a hill above the Isar, and its crypt holds the Bestiensäule, a twelfth-century column carved with intertwined beasts and human figures fighting them, unique in German Romanesque sculpture and still argued over. On the neighbouring hill, the Weihenstephan brewery traces a licence to brew and sell beer to 1040 and describes itself as the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world; the claim rests on documentary evidence that is disputed in detail but generally accepted as the strongest such case. The site is now also the brewing and food technology faculty of the Technical University of Munich.

What you actually see

• The Bestiensäule - a carved twelfth-century column in the cathedral crypt.
• The Weihenstephan brewery - production traced by the house to 1040.
• The cathedral hill - a Romanesque church remodelled in the baroque.
• The university faculty - brewing science taught on the same hill.

When to go

April to October; brewery tours run on set days and must be booked, ending with a tasting. The cathedral closes during services. Freising is an easy S-Bahn trip.

Honest expectations

Brewery tours are limited, booked ahead and not daily. The 1040 claim is contested by other breweries. The cathedral crypt is small and dim.

Nearby

Munich lies south; the airport is between them.