Hotel Walfisch – a superior-category hotel with adjoining restaurant for the discerning taste. Family-owned since 1919, its fame and reputation have spread far beyond the region of Franconia where it is situated. The restaurant offers a diversity of Franconian and classic international dishes which can also be enjoyed on the sun terrace in summer. The sun terrace provides a wonderful view which takes in the River Main, the Marienberg fortress and Balthasar Neumann’s pilgrimage church (das Käppele). Its location close to the city makes our hotel an ideal starting point for excursions and a likewise ideal venue for conventions, congresses and seminars.
We are frequently asked by our guests whether our restaurant menu also includes whale (whale being the English translation of “Walfisch”). A not inconceivable possibility, but a look at the River Main soon convinces that the huge mammal would hardly find enough room in such waters. So how did Würzburg nevertheless get its “Walfisch” and we our name?
No, it wasn’t because a colossus of the ocean strayed up the rivers Rhine and Main and got stranded at the foot of the fortress. The fact is that there was once a wine and fish inn called “Zum Wallfisch” at another location in Würzburg some 300 years ago, named after the waller (English: wels), a large freshwater catfish to be found in the Main in those days.
The inn’s name became available one day, upon which an innkeeper acquired it for his inn situated where today’s “Wallfisch” stands, and changed it to “Zum schwarzen Wallfisch” (“Black Wels”). The name lost an “l” somewhere along the line, and thus become “Walfisch” which, as you now know, is German for “whale”.
We look forward to welcoming you soon to our Hotel Walfisch!
The Schwarzmeier family and all employees.
If coming by car, please drive right up to the front of the hotel. Our staff will direct you to the hotel’s parking facility.
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