Our Story

How it all began

Our hotel or the former “Zum Ochsen” originated from the old “Roten Ochsen”, one of the city’s oldest inns. It was first documented in 1231 and can look back on an eventful past in all the centuries of its existence.

The inn derived its name from the fact that the area before it once held oxen markets. At the time, the “Rote Ochsen” [red oxen] – as it was called in those times – was the property and inn of the butcher guild, which played a significant role among Würzburg’s guilds. There is a legend that tells how it became its possession.

A Würzburg butcher returning home from the countryside encountered a group of henchmen in the forest, who had kidnapped an aristocratic young lady from her castle. Our courageous butcher managed to free the young lady and, at her request, he took her to Würzburg and the “Zum Ochsen” inn. Delighted at her rescue, the rescued damsel immediately purchased the “Zum Ochsen” inn and gifted it to the butcher guild as a token of her appreciation.

In the past

On the night of March 16, Würzburg was bombed. In less than a half hour, British planes turned the city into an inferno. As the last fires died out after three days, only seven buildings were intact in the old city – the most devastating destruction after Dresden and Pforzheim.

Traces of the war were still visible in Würzburg even in 1952. Due to the massive damage, the furniture store in front of the inn had to be completely torn down. The “Ochse” used the remaining property of the torn furniture store to slightly expand.

Current day

The former “Zum Ochsen” inn has been owned by the Mohr family since 1991. After extensive retrofitting, renovation and modernization work under the direction of Franz Mohr (decd. 2017), the Hotel Residence afterwards opened its gates in 1992.