thüngen und gambach (13. 591)

 

Afterwards, we traveled to the market town of Thüngen, whose name is derived from the Old Germanic word Thing, þing, ding for an assembly place and placed on to a knightly family (see previously), on the river Wern. There is an ensemble of Schlosses including the old hospital palace and warehouse but in private hands, it was not really possible to get a good view of the castles from the street other than the Orangerie at the entrance.

Driving a little further on, we returned to a constituent community of Karlstadt, Gambach, just beyond the vineyards and hiked up a geological trail, populated with lizards and snakes though we didn’t encounter any, that showed the limestone strata of the epochs forming the hills now given over to viticulture. A top the Weinbau was a chapel and a Lourdes Grotto, constructed in 1958 for the hundredth anniversary of the Marian apparition in France and inspired by a local war veteran’s pilgrimage to the Occitan site in the Pyrenees (see also), grateful for surviving World War I and praying for intercession to stop the landslides that threatened to destroy the wine harvest, promising to build the shrine.

karlstadt am main (13. 590)

 

 

Next we travelled further into the Franconian wine-growing region of Main-Spessart to Karlstadt facing the Karlsburg, the village of Mühlbach hosting the castle ruins (destroyed during the Bauernkrieg in 1625) and harbour on the opposite bank of the river. The thirteenth century town on the eastern shore was founded by the bishopric of Würzburg to defend its territories against the marauding Counts if Rieneck, the streets of the Altstadt laid out like a chessboard.

 

We hiked up to the remains of the spur fortress, built sometime before the eighth century, perhaps at the direction of Charles Martel, situated on the broad rocky promontory overlooking the river and valley below, the landscape of fields, pastures and vineyards now dominated by huge silos where agricultural products are stored, staged and loaded onto barges.  Though I did not capture it in the best light, we appreciated the photogenic signage that the town had on display at the river bank, like they have for Amsterdam, Gdańsk, etc.

kloster schönau (13. 589)

 

Originally founded as a monastery dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in the late tenth century by ministerialis (a type of dependent knight, see previously here and here) by Philipp von Thüngen zu Heßlar with the support of the bishopric of Würzburg as a pilgrimage destination managed by Cistercian nuns of local nobility until the nuns were forced to flee during the Peasants’ Revolt and the last abbess, Veronika Geyer von Giebelstadt returned the property to the diocese, cloister Schönau was given over to a Franciscan friar in the early 1700s, remodeled in the Baroque style, which informs the look today, and acquired the relics of two catacomb saints from Rome, reinterred and adding to the its appeal for pilgrims, called Viktor and Antonius.

Slated for dissolution in 1803 as part of the securalisation of Church land  within the Kingdom of Bavaria, monks refused to abandon the site until only one was left in 1827, Brother Totnan Schech, surviving to an advanced age out of determination and witnessing the decree of King Ludwig I, restoring some still active Church property. Though repopulated back then, the site is today only home to two priests and one monk providing pastoral services to the community—with a hostel for visitors. Schönau is celebrating the recent eighth-hundredth anniversary of the order and as a reminder that St Francis invented the creche, there is a sixteenth-century historical Nativity Scene, not trying to be a costume-drama.

gemünden am main (13. 587)

 

For the long weekend, H and I returned to Gemünden on the Main river for an extended stay at a campsite at the confluence of the three chief tributaries. I wondered about the coat of arms, that seems to show an architecturally impossible cast with elevated turrets on the crenellated walls—though it’s meant to convey perspective, behind the greater tower—something which heraldry does not generally do, representing the hilltop ruin of Schloss Scherenburg and the other fortifications (see above) built by the Counts of Rieneck to collect tolls.

Officially (amtlich), we also noticed that it is rendered a.Main, like other towns in the area—rather than Gemünden ª/ Main or Gemünden (Main), which I am pretty sure it used to be—perhaps to avoid confusing computers, see previously. Despite being in the middle of the war-torn region of the Peasants’ Revolt (Bauernkrieg, 1524 to 1525), the town survived in part due to the revenue that the important navigable juncture brought. Gemünden’s strategic location on the waterway, however, caused it to be a target of Allied air raids during World War II, over sixty percent of the Altstadt destroyed but rebuilt according to its original character in the 1950s and 60s.

vom berg zum burg (13. 400)

For our last full day in the area this time around, H and I visited a pair of nearby palaces in Schloss Weißenstein in Pommersfelden, a Baroque three-winged complex built for the counts of Schönborn as the summer Residenz of the Prince-Bishop electors, delegates who represented the interests of the imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire.

Whilst the commission, Lothar Franz, future archbishop, had inherited a medieval moated castle in the vicinity—described as “robbers’ den”—he felt those confines did not suit the grandeur of his office and an ongoing feudal territory dispute between Bamberg and Bayreuth split the property was a major distraction, undertaking design for the project with architect Johann Dientzenthofer personally for a palace and grounds that would rival the construction’s imprint in Versailles.

Contemporary peers upon visiting the palace had some critical impressions about its portions and planning and surplus of golden embellishments, and although tours can be arranged, the property remains in the hands of the Schönborn family. We were nonetheless impressed by the courtyard and roosting storks that made their clapping noises as we had the place essentially all to ourselves. We explored the extensive enclosed gardens, an artificial deer-run with a colony (Wilddam) still living there and a protective habitat for frogs. We were a bit hesitant to take the dog but she failed to see the deer resting in the shade of a tree. Afterwards we revisited Schloss Seehof (see previously) in Mememelsdorf, another Baroque retreat, more modest and based off the quadrilateral Johannisburg of Aschaffenburg by Balthasar Neumann but also with the input of Lothar Franz for later landscaping.

bergstadt bamberg (13. 398)

Called the Frankonian Rome for its seven hill, each crowned with a church, we made our way into town via a short bus ride—a first for the dogs who handled it pretty well—hoping that the holiday crowd would have dissipated somewhat, but the the city was full and lots was going on for a fair-weather weekend. 

There is an absolute embarrassment of sites to see in the Old Town, so we had to limit ourselves to a nice stroll in the Alt Stadt and ended up at old brewery, treated to another live band, this time a klezmer group with clarinets and accordion. A quick tour, even a whistle-stop one of the main attractions along the canals, also with comparisons to another Italian jewel with Klein Venedig, do not do it justice. We did manage however to pay some homage to the Altes Rathaus, designed in the mid-eighteenth century to mark the boundary between the hilly part of the town and the collection of islands in the Regnitz that coincides with the limits of the bishopric and secular district of the town, legend holding that the ecclesiastics were to stingy to afford the citizenry land for a town hall, so an artificial island was improvised, Venice-style.

 

bug (13. 394)

 

Pronounced “boog,” we joined our neighbours for a long Labour Day weekend on a colourful campsite just south of Bamberg on an island in the river Regnitz at the mouth of the Aurachtal. 

Though the retreat made no pretensions of being an artists’ colony, there was a surfeit of paintings and statuary everywhere, first discovering the art in the restaurant, converted from the former studio and dance hall of the camp’s founders, Fritz and Else Hoffmann-Bug (the nobiliary particle adopted for the couples’ adopted residence and long-term project) who began the campgrounds after the war in 1952, exhibiting his own works and chairing the first professional visual artists’ association for Upper Franconia.

We were going to order wine with dinner, but then remembered how Bamberg is famed for its beers, and had a Rauchbier (the flavour won from toasting the malted barley) that paired well with the smoked trout, with a distinctive taste like s’mores and campfire. The restrooms for the campers were rather vaulted affairs themselves, outfitted as a gallery of paintings and murals and a singular experience to pass through and assuredly much appreciated by guests—the camp remaining in the family over the subsequent generations and maintaining the showcase and artistic spirit of the establishment. The village was until recently also host to the museum and publishing house for the adventure franchise of Karl May before being repatriated in 1995 to the writer’s native Radebeul.