The Grave field or Grabfeldgau is a plain in the low mountain range in the north Lower Franconia in Bavaria as well as in the south of the districts of Hildburghausen and Schmalkalden-Meiningen in Southwest Thuringia.
Regions
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places
- 1 Bad Koenigshofen
- spa town and health resort.
- 2 Hoechheim - with the Irmelshausen moated castle in the village of the same name.
- 3 Hall on the Saale - Market town with the pilgrimage church of the Visitation of Mary on the near Findelberg and that of Balthasar Neumann remodeled Waltershausen Castle in the district of the same name.
- 4 Sulzdorf an der Lederhecke - Source of the Franconian Saale.
- 5 Trappstadt - Market community.
The in Southwest Thuringia located city 6 Römhild
and the 7 Grave field.
Other goals
- The Green ribbon is the first all-German nature conservation project and was created along the former inner-German border strip that made the grave area impenetrable during the Cold War Lower Franconian and Thuringian part severed.
background
The Grabfeld is a former East Franconian district.
Geographically, the grave field borders the region in the northwest Rhön-Saale, in the northeast to that Werra Valley and in the south to the Hatred Mountains.
The grave field was first mentioned as "Part of Eastern Franconia" in a document from the year 813. This document differentiates between an eastern and a western grave field. Numerous Untergaue are also assigned to the Gau, the designation "provincia" is expressly used. Fulda is still simply assigned to the grave field.
Agriculture: The Gäu landscape of the Grabfeld is a Keuper hill country and is mainly used for arable farming because of its favorable climatic conditions and the good soil conditions. There is grassland farming in the valley lowlands along the Franconian Saale, there are also many old orchards. The Natural spaces in the Grabfeld are characterized by semi-dry lime lawns, fresh willow stands, juniper heaths, sparse pine forests and also some near-natural deciduous forests.
The region is eponymous for the Grabfeld formation, a geological term for the layer of gypsum keuper that occurs throughout Germany and for which the grave field is typical. The soil layer was formed as sedimentary rock about 230 million years ago, that is the period with the very first dinosaurs (wikipedia: Grabfeld Formation).
regional customs
Light rooms
Light rooms are an old custom that used to be widespread in the countryside in northern Franconia:
In winter, smaller groups of the village community met at the lighthouse landlords in the spinning room for board games, for wool knitting or lace making and generally for social gatherings, which also saved money for candlelight and wood for the heating at home. The Lichtstubenwirt received a fee for leaving his rooms.
In the absence of any other meeting point, the unmarried village youth were usually particularly active, peasant songs and stories were cultivated and with beer and music it was often quite funny. The important dates were Ursula Day (October 21st), the week after Martini (November 11th), the end of the light rooms was then Maria Candlemas (February 2nd). Sometimes the light rooms and spinning rooms for boys and girls were also separated, which of course provoked rule violations.
After the end of the Second World War, the customs were as good as extinct, but more recently the tradition of light rooms and spinning rooms in many places in the grave field has been revived by the locals, often as well as for non-local open events with a cultural background and on initiative the local or home associations.
Easter
At Easter time it can be lost for 100 years Holy grave daily between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. in Eyershausen, a district of Bad Koenigshofen can be visited.
language
getting there
By train
The Grabfeld can be reached via the Erfurt - Schweinfurt railway line. The train stations here are Rentwertshausen, Mellrichstadt and Bad Neustadt.
In the street
The federal motorway 71 leads through the Grabfeld with the junction points Rentwertshausen, Mellrichstadt and Bad Neustadt.
mobility
Grabfeld is located on both sides of the federal road B279 from Bad Neustadt to Bamberg, and can be easily reached via this. Connection point of the B279 to the A71 motorway (Thuringian Forest motorway): Exit Bad Neustadt;
Tourist Attractions
- Equal mountains, (679m), large and small; forested twin volcanic cones in the Thuringian part of the grave field;
Castles and Palaces
- Brennhausen Castle - Late medieval lonely moated castle near Sulzdorf an der Lederhecke, first building details probably as early as the 13th century, first mentioned in a document in 1393;
- Wildberg Castle - Castle ruins made of wall and vault remnants on the Haßberghöhe near Sulzdorf, ancestral seat of the dynasty of the same name, which is documented here from 1123 to 1305. Destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525. In 1977 the vaults were exposed again and secured.
- Veste Irmelshausen, one of the most beautiful moated castles in Franconia and owned by the Lords of Bibra for six hundred years.
- Kleinbardorf, Renaissance moated castle with richly decorated portals; built in 1589/1590 by Heinrich von Bibra; Renovated in 1766;
- Roßrieth moated castle First mentioned in 1140, the current complex was built from 1589 on the ruins of the old castle, which had been destroyed as a robber's nest. Currently in severe need of renovation;
- Trappstadt Castle,
- Sternberg Castle, Castle fortress of Count Henneberg on the Sterenberg, first mentioned in a document in 948. Ganerbeburg in the 14th century;
- Waltershausen Castle with a splendid rococo hall;
Museums
In Bad Koenigshofen:
- Archaeological Museum, a branch museum of the State Archaeological Collection in the "Alte Schranne". The museum shows a comprehensive overview of the prehistory and early history of eastern Lower Franconia, especially the Rhön and the grave field.
- Tower Museum Small museum for the tower life;
In Römhild:
- Steinsburg Museum, Special museum for prehistory and early history of southern Thuringia;
- Museum Schloss Glücksburg, Stadtmuseum Römhild with various collections;
Museums on the former inner-German border:
- Border Museum Eußenhausen, at the former border crossing on the Schanz near Eußenhausen;
miscellaneous
- Fairytale forest Sambachshof in Sambachshof Bad Koenigshofen. In an idyllic location, in the hiking area of the spa town of Bad Königshofen, away from the heavy traffic, young and old enjoy the most popular fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.
activities
- Frankentherme in Bad Koenigshofen, since 2006 with the first medicinal water lake in Germany.
- Resurrection path, opened on Easter Monday 2012 as the first in Bavaria: an eight-kilometer circular route connects the Protestant parishes of Irmelshausen, Höchheim and Rothausen as a footpath and also as a bike path. It is equipped with 13 large-format panels, the pictures on the panels for words from the Bible were created by the late artist Werner Steinbrecher from Allenbostel near Uelzen.
kitchen
The only brewery is in the grave field Lang Brewery in Waltershausen;
nightlife
security
climate
literature
- ; Culture agency of the district of Rhön-Grabfeld (Ed.): Churches in the Rhön-Grabfeld district. Red print, 2010, ISBN 978-3-939959-06-9 ; about 300. Church leaders, comprehensive account of the churches.
Special:
- "Der Sagenschatz des Frankenlandes" and "The sagas of the Rhön Mountains and the Grabfeld", edited by Ludwig Bechstein, Voigt and Nocker, Würzburg (1842), reprint in September 1979 by Rainer Hartmann, Sondheim v.d.Rhön --- in the antiquarian bookshop.
- The art monuments of Bavaria, III, Königshofen district office; Verlag R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1915; Reprint Munich 1983, ISBN 3-486-50467-3 ;
Web links
- Association for local history in Grabfeld: www.das-grabfeld.de;
- Municipal alliance Fränkischer Grabfeldgau ("Grabfeldallianz"): www.allianz-grabfeldgau.de (an amalgamation of ten municipalities in Grabfeld);
