Holy Lands
The popular name Holy Lands covers a region in the southern Haßberge in Lower Franconia . The center of the Holy Lands is the municipality of Kirchlauter in the Lautertal ( Haßberge district ).
The Holy Lands
The exact geographic extent of the Holy Lands is disputed. Originally they only seem to have included the area of the Kirchlauter parish, founded in 1446, with the villages of Köslau , Pettstadt (Kirchlauter) , Kottenbrunn , Dörflis , Neubrunn and Goggelgereuth . Later the designation was extended “to behind the castle wall of Gleisenau ”. Since then Schönbach, Breitbrunn , Schönbrunn, Lußberg and Rudendorf have also belonged to the Holy Lands. In the north the forest mountain of the "Stachel" borders the Holy Lands, in the south the Stettfeld community forest . According to tradition, the term should go back at least to the time of the Thirty Years' War . In a Haßfurt chronicle there was a note that the Haßfurt citizens had moved "across the holy lands" to Zeil am Main and thus stabbed the enemy in the back. At that time, the Catholic general, Count Tilly, had occupied the main town.
In addition to the Lauter, the Ebelsbach is the second major stream in the Holy Lands. The water runs through the area like Lauter to the south and flows into the Alt main at Eltmann . The Lauter itself is a tributary of the Baunach , which also flows into the Main. The landscape is heavily crushed, the soil structure is often restless and disturbed. The valley floors are dominated by the densely wooded mountain ranges of the Haßberge.
Origin of name
The origin of the name “Holy Lands” for the somewhat remote area is unclear. The term may have originated in the forest mountains because of this remoteness. A trip from Bamberg , Ebern or Zeil to Lautertal was half a trip around the world, similar to a pilgrimage to the “ Holy Land ”.
Another attempted explanation assumes that the population here is said to have been particularly respectable and pious. Around 59 field crosses and wayside shrines are documented in Kirchlauter and its surroundings .
The opposite derivation is also particularly widespread in neighboring towns. Accordingly, the inhabitants of the area were not particularly honorable and pious, so the term should be understood rather ironically .
Linguists see a possible connection with a West Slavic word "hellich", which is supposed to mean "hilly". The “Holy Lands” would therefore actually be “Hilly Lands”. The Main-Rednitz-Wends, which were formerly located in the region, were Germanized shortly after the founding of the Bamberg diocese and were completely absorbed by the Franconian population.
The district home nurse Günter Lipp also brought the derivation of the old German personal name "Heilo" into the discussion ("Lands of Heilo").
literature
- Norbert Kandler: Kirchlauter - history of the parish and its surroundings up to the baroque period . Echter Verlag, Würzburg, 1985, ISBN 3-429-00933-2
- Günter Lipp: The holy lands . In: 1991 annual gift from the Ebern Citizens' Association for its members and friends . Ebern, 1991