Konstanz, Germany - Walking Tour

Konstanz is a university city of approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in southern Germany. The city is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg and is located on the shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German). Lake Constance is the third largest freshwater lake in Central and Western Europe (and the second largest by volume) after Lake Geneva. The lake is situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. Its shorelines lie in the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria; the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau, and Schaffhausen; and the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. The actual location of the border is disputed.. The Rhine River, which begins in the Swiss Alps, flows through Lake Constance and leaves it, considerably larger, by flowing under a bridge connecting the two parts of the city. North of the river lies most of the city with residential areas, industrial areas and the University of Konstanz; while south of the river is the old town, which houses the administrative center and commercial facilities in addition to the Hochschule or University of Applied Sciences.
The Altstadt (Old Town), which is large considering the small size of modern Konstanz, has many old buildings and winding streets. The skyline of the city is dominated by Constance Cathedral, several other churches and three towers remaining from the city wall, one of which marks the site of the former medieval bridge over the Rhine.
The University of Konstanz was established near the city in 1966. It has a library with approximately two million books, all freely accessible 24 hours a day, as well as a botanical garden (Botanischer Garten der Universität Konstanz).
The first traces of civilization in Konstanz date back to the Late Stone Age. This small town on the left bank of the Rhine was probably originally called Drusomagus and belonged to the Roman province of Rhaetia. Its later name, originally Constantia, comes from either the Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus or his grandson Constantius II, who visited the region in 354.