Straubing - St. Peter

The Romans have been here -on the banks of the Danube- for about 400 years. When they withdrew a group of Bavarii settled here, lead by a person named Strupo. Accordingly the settlement was called Strupinga - and today is Straubing. The market place, seen before is about 500 meters east n the "new town", the old center was here, all around the Carolingian predecessor of the church of St. Peter, seen here.

St. Peter, built around 1200, is a Romanesque basilica. Since ceturies the church is surrounded by an old graveyard. The structure of the church looks very "complete", what is the result of the reconstruction of the 19th century. Upto then the towers were not finished - and the higher one was decorated with a Baroque onion dome since about 1700.

Fortunately the Romanesque carvings of St. Peter have survived the times of modernisation. Carvings like this tympanum of the southern portal, which is a side portal to the basilica. A lion to the right battles a beast, that may be a dragon with some griffin-genes.Do they really fight? Or does the lion just pose to the onlooker - while the dragon licks the lion´s ear.