frickenhäuser see (12. 119)

Incorporated as part of the town of Mellrichstadt since secularisation, the parish village falling previously under the authority of the monastic community of Kloster Wechterswinkel, we took a little walk around the namesake lake, a bit more than a hectare and the largest natural body of water in Lower Franconia—this flooded funnel shaped crater (a sinkhole from a collapsed cave with no tributaries or outflows) and not originally a mine shaft like many of the ponds in the area. 

 Dating from the triassic era and rich in fossils across strata of limestone, the lake is designated as a protected geotope (Geotop, compared to Biotop or biome) and is counted among the hundred finest geological formations that gives insight on the history of the Earth and the course of development of life on it.