The Reichsstraße is the old imperial road that runs through the heart of Donauwörth, lined with tall, closely packed townhouses in shades of ochre, cream, rose and pale blue. The street climbs gently from the Danube end up to the Liebfrauenmünster, and the effect — especially in morning light — is of a Baroque stage set still being used for its original purpose. The Rathaus and the Fuggerhaus (a 16th-century trading house built by the Augsburg banking dynasty) are the architectural anchors, but the pleasure is as much in the ensemble as any single building.
Much of what you see today is a careful post-war reconstruction. British and American bombers hit Donauwörth hard in February 1945, devastating much of the old town. The rebuilding that followed was done with unusual fidelity to the original forms — facades were reinstated from historical records, proportions respected — so the street reads as genuinely old even where the fabric is not. It is one of the more successful pieces of postwar urban reconstruction in Bavaria.
The street is still a working town centre, with bakeries, pharmacies and small shops occupying the ground floors. Walking its full length takes only ten minutes, but most visitors end up doing it twice.