Christmas in Erfurt 2011

Our first Christmas Market for 2011 was in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. It is about 3 hours north of us by train, so we took some books to read and enjoyed the ride.

Erfurt is a beautiful little city. The architecture is a mix of Fachwerk (half-timbered) houses, Gothic, and Renaissance. There is a bridge in Erfurt called the Krämerbrücke. It would have been a prime location for business back in the Middle Ages. So merchants built their houses and shops on it. Today it still has 28 Fachwerk houses on it. It's not as big as the Ponto Vecchio in Florence, but it's very charming.




















The goal of the trip was the Weihnachtsmarkt. Erfurt claims to have the tallest Christmas pyramid in the world. I don't know if that's true or not, but the Christmas market was certainly very nice. It has the traditional handcrafters' products like toys and ornaments, along with the hot spiced wine and roasted chestnuts that I have to get every year or it wouldn't be Christmas in Germany.





























The Weihnachtsmarkt is at the base of a hill with two churches on it. One church is the cathedral, and the other is a parish church. In this photo you can see the stage on the left at the base of the steps where children's plays are performed by very energetic actors. While we were there the kids saw a performance of "The princess and the pea."















Inside the cathedral are reliquaries of saints Boniface (died 754), Kilian (died 689), and Elizabeth of Thuringen (died 1231).














Boniface is the patron saint of Germany. He converted the Franks and was the first Bishop of Mainz. According to the one source, in 723 Boniface had a tree cut down that was sacred to the local pagans. The tree was called Donar-Eiche (Thor's oak). Boniface called upon Thor to strike him down if Boniface cut down the holy tree. When Boniface started to chop the oak down, a strong wind suddenly blew the ancient oak over, as if by miracle. When Thor didn't strike Boniface down, the people were amazed and converted to Christianity.





















Kilian is the patron saint of Franconia, and was martyred in Würzburg. He converted the Duke of Würzburg to Christianity, but when he told the Duke that he was in violation of sacred scripture by being married to his brother's widow, the Duke's wife became so angry that she had her soldiers sent to the main square of Würzburg, where Kilian and his colleagues were preaching, and had him beheaded. Today a glass case containing Kilian's scull is removed from a crypt, and paraded through the streets of Würzburg on St Kilian's day, before large crowds, and put on display in Würzburg Cathedral, which is dedicated to Kilian.













Elizabeth's story is one of my favorites. She was raised in the court of Ludwig IV of Thuringia in the Wartburg (just east of Erfurt), and was accustomed to privilege. But she was very charitable, and had a hospital built at the base of the Wartburg. She was also very pious, and spent hours in the confessional.
She was married at 14, but her husband, the Duke, died five years later on his way to the 6th crusade. Her husband's brother, Heinrich Raspe, became Duke. He did not approve of her charity and was suspicious of the amount of time she spent in confessional. Elizabeth would regularly sneak down the hill with bread for the poor. One day, Heinrich caught her on the way, and asked what she was hiding under her cloak. When Elizabeth showed him, the bread had turned to roses.




















There is a tradition of flowers in Erfurt, too.
In the side of the hill that the cathedral is on, there is a catacomb. The underground vaults have been cleared, and artists decorate them at Christmas time with flowers. As we went down under ground, the hall was decorated with pine boughs and Christmas-Tree ornaments.





















At the bottom was a long hall with 16 vaults along the sides.




















The vaults were filled with decorations made from flowers.






































There is more to see and do in Erfurt. We didn't have time to visit the Monastery where Martin Luther became a monk. Nor did we visit the Church where the mystic Meister Eckhart lived and worked between 1278 and 1311. Then there is the fortress that the Bishop built between 1664 and 1707 against the people of Erfurt. We'll definitely go back.

Walhalla

I just love this combination of classical architecture in a natural setting. I'm not the only one; a million people visit annually.
The building is on the bank of the Danube river in the countryside.

Walhalla is a monument and museum to all ethnic Germans including some from Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Switzerland and Russia. It includes over 200 artists, poets, musicians, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, saints, inventors, architects, knights, kings, emperors and statesmen.

The building is an exact copy of the Parthenon. It is all marble, 413 feet long, 165 feet wide, 66 feet high, with its roof supported by 52 Doric columns.


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Poets and Thinkers

Among Germany's Dichter und Denker, poets and thinkers, two of the greatest are Goethe and Schiller.
While in Weimar, we visited the home of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe is to German what Shakespeare is to English or what Dante is to Italian. He is best known for his play, "Faust", which is the original story of the man who sells his sole to the devil. But at the end of the story, Faust finds redemption through love. This is a common German theme, also found in my favorite opera, Wagner's Tannhäuser. Another is Redemption through striving, and a good example is Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.

















He spent most of his adult life in Weimar. And it is due in large part to Goethe that Weimar is a classical city. He attracted other prominent people to the city.

He also expanded the Anna Amalia Library.

The Castle Road: Waischenfeld

The Castle Road extends from Mannheim in the west to Prague in the east. The road goes through some fantastic castles and castle ruins, like in Heidelberg, Kulmbach, and . It also goes through the Frankonian Schweiz, which is just north-east of Erlangen. The castles are smaller, but very charming, and usually have some very dramatic settings.

We went to the castle ruin of Waischenfeld yesterday. It was built in 1100 and survived the 30-Years War in the 1600s (even though the town didn't), but was destroyed by Napoleon in 1796.



The ruin overlooks a small river called the Wiesent. A little bit downstream is an old mill with a Bed-and-Breakfast and a little beer garden along the river. Since I was driving, I couldn't have a beer, but the "Kaffee und Kuchen" was delicious. (I had grandma's freshly made cherry tort. Kathy had an amazingly light cheese cake, also made by grandma.)













Since it was Easter, the towns along the river had their wells and fountains decorated with pine boughs and painted eggs.

The Romantic Road: Weikersheim

The Romantic Road in Germany extends from Würtzburg to Füssen. Along the way are lots of medieval towns with the old fortress walls and half-timbered Fachwerk houses. The most famous is the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein. But we took the car to a little out-of-the-way place called Weikersheim. It is in the valley of the Tauber River, which is lined with wineyards. As you come up to the town, you enter through a little gateway, and suddenly you are surrounded by Fachwerk buildings. Straight ahead is the town square. As usual, there is a fountain and a church.





















The main attraction of Weikersheim is the Palace. Nobody knows exactly how old it is. The first documentation is of a meeting of the lords of Hohenlohe in 1153. Since the thirteenth century, Weikerheim was one of two seats for the two branches of the Hohenlohe family, but since the fifteenth century it is the only remaining seat. It was a moated castle until 1586 when Count Wolfgang rebuilt it in the Renaissance style. On the edge of the town square is the gate to the bridge over the moat.










Inside the courtyard is a well, of course. And it was decorated for Easter. But the nicest decorations were in the corner of the courtyard.



























Inside the palace there are three time periods represented: the oldest is Renaisance, followed by Baroque and Rococo. Count Wolfgang, who became famous for his alchemical experiments, and died in 1610 at the age of 64, never moved into the palace. But he left behind the centerpiece of his building project: The Knights' Hall (Rittersaal).














The worst period for the palace was during the 30-years War. In 1634 the palace was completely plundered. But the grandson of Count Wolfgang, Count Siegfried, started construction again in 1679. In 1709 Count Karl-Ludwig took the palace over, and over the next 50 years the palace and its Baroque garden took on its present shape.














Count Karl-Luwig died childless in 1756, and Schloss Weikersheim lost its significance, and it fell into disuse. Luckily for us, everything was left as it was on the day the Count moved out. All the furniture and decorations were left in their original locations. In 1967 the last heir sold the palace and everything in it to the state of Baden-Würtemburg for 5.5-million Marks.