Katharinenberg (Wunsiedel)
| Katharinenberg | ||
|---|---|---|
| height | 618 m above sea level NHN | |
| location | District of Wunsiedel | |
| Mountains | Fichtel Mountains | |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 2 ′ 1 ″ N , 12 ° 0 ′ 41 ″ E | |
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| rock | Phyllite | |
| particularities | Natural monument, church ruin | |
The Katharinenberg is 618 m above sea level. NHN high mountain made of phyllite immediately south of the city of Wunsiedel in the Fichtel Mountains in Upper Franconia . On its north and north-west slopes there is a species-rich population of trees, shrubs and semi-shrubs . The mountain is also the location of rare herbs that are only found there in northeast Bavaria. Sections of the mountain are a protected natural monument or have been entered in the Bavarian list of monuments.
The structures
Pilgrimage church
In the summit area is the ruin of the former pilgrimage church , the oldest building in Wunsiedel, which was consecrated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria . The time of its creation is unknown, in a letter of indulgence from October 1, 1364, sealed by 14 archbishops and bishops, it was first mentioned in a document. The former mountain chapel contained a widely famous miraculous image of St. Catherine, which attracted many pilgrims. The letter granted 40 days indulgence from ecclesiastical penalties to all who came to the chapel on specific, individually listed days and supported it with gifts. In 1384 an early mass was donated, which was held by a Wunsiedler priest. The villages of Rügersgrün and Holzmühl had to make annual maintenance payments from their income. In 1444 a lay brother was named who, as a hermit, performed sacristan and guardian duties.
In the city archive of Wunsiedel there is a report written shortly after 1500 about miraculous healings by St. Catherine. People from the "Pehemer Land" (Bohemia) and from places "two miles behind Nuremberg" made pilgrimages to the oldest pilgrimage to the Katharinenberg. There were lame, blind, half drowned and suffocated, including war invalids, who had "vowed to the dear Junckfrau Sant Katharina on the mountain". This martyr was considered the greatest saint of the 14 helpers in need. The pilgrimage destination visited up until the Reformation was a marble statue of the martyr that was considered miraculous.
Expansion to a church
From 1452 the construction of the west tower began. According to the maintenance regulations of 1498 , it also served as an observation and signaling station. After the introduction of the Reformation , the church fell to its foundations. The base of the well-preserved tower is rounded off by a cornice carefully crafted from granite, and on the upper floor there are four ogival granite sound windows. The inscription on a granite tablet on the north side of the tower commemorates the victorious defense of Wunsiedel in 1430 against the Hussites and in 1462 against the Bohemians.
In the middle of the former nave is a four-sided granite pillar from the 15th century that served as an offering box . In the choir there is a late Gothic wayside shrine made of granite, crowned with a cross. It stood at the north foot of the mountain on a bridge over the Rösla until 1826 and was erected in the church ruins in 1848. To the southwest of the tower is a tall granite boulder with a medallion portrait of Prince Regent Luitpold . The cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein completed a very precise map of the church area for the first time with the existing inventory.
During an ecumenical service in May 2002, granite tablets with the eight Beatitudes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in German, English, French, Czech, Russian and Latin were consecrated within the church ruins as a symbol of peace, reconciliation and friendship between peoples.
history
In 1430 Hans von Kotzau defeated the Hussites in the Battle of the Katharinenberg. Later in 1462 Jobst von Schirnding won the Bavarian War there over the Bohemians . Local sources speak of a "longer" and a "closer Hussenrais".
Katharinenberg public park
The oldest town chronicle reports that the Wunsiedler citizens cut down the Katharinenberg when they built their town. This could be true because the Katharinenberg originally undoubtedly supported deciduous forest. The phyllite soil , which rises from the Röslatal from 535 to 618 meters, has a beneficial effect on the deciduous forest. The citizens laid fields and meadows on the slopes of the Katharinenberg at an early stage. The top of the mountain, on the other hand, remained common property , i.e. municipal property. Around 1800 a group of men tried to introduce fruit growing in the Fichtel Mountains. The idea arose to cultivate the summit of the Katharinenberg and to plant an orchard there. In the summer of 1810 young people from Wunsiedel began to clean up the ruins and their surroundings and to work the soil. Apricot, cherry and sour cherry trees were planted, but they did not survive the winter. The Bayreuth court gardener Örtel then had a plan drawn up for a park and in the following years they planted birches, mountain ash, rose bushes and other things.
In 1833 the city of Wunsiedel took over the maintenance of the Katharinenberg facilities. On certain occasions, small festivals were celebrated on the Katharinenberg. However, the facilities at that time only comprised about a tenth of today's park and forest areas. Around 1892 the entire planting was completed and the Katharinenberg has served the Wunsiedler citizens as a place of relaxation ever since.
Schützenhaus, state hunting school and youth hostel
When the train station in Wunsiedel was built in 1877, the shooting company had to stop on the property. The shooting range received from the city of Wunsiedel a new shooting range on the northeast slope of the Katharinenberg, where it has owned a shooting range since 1878. The training facility of the Bavarian State Hunting Association is attached to the building complex. In 2006 the city of Wunsiedel expanded the access to the rifle house. From the parking lot there you have a good view of Wunsiedel. The district's youth hostel is on the west side of Katharinenberg .
Nature as a place of learning
Branch off from Marktredwitzer Strasse and head east through an old ravine, Birnbaumgasse with a nature trail . An extensive orchard meadow is attached . On the north side of the mountain, after the driveway through the cellar lane to the parking lots at the Schützenhaus, there is a deer enclosure. A bird of prey and owl park was built on the southwest side of the Katharinenberg and opened to visitors in spring 2007. There over 50 day and night birds of prey from 23 species can be observed up close in 20 spacious aviaries and daily flight demonstrations.
Collis Clamat
The Collis Clamat medieval festival has been held on the mountain since 2009 , at which episodes from the history of Wunsiedel are presented.
literature
- Marion Dubler: Citizens' Park Katharinenberg in Wunsiedel: Guiding conception for garden monument preservation (DVD). March 2005.
- Helmut Hennig: Warthen on the mountains . In: Local supplement to the official school gazette of the administrative district of Upper Franconia . Bayreuth. No. 256 November 1998. pp. 33-35.
- Elisabeth Jäger : Wunsiedel 1163 - 1560 . Wunsiedel 1987.
- Bernhard Hermann Röttger : District of Wunsiedel and urban district of Marktredwitz . The Art Monuments of Bavaria , VIII. Administrative Region Upper Franconia, Volume 1 . Munich 1954. ISBN 3-486-41941-2 . Pp. 432-444.
- Hans Vollet and Kathrin Heckel: The ruins drawings by the Plassenburg cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein . 1987.
- Heinrich Vollrath: The nature park on the Katharinenberg . In: Narrator from Gabelmannsplatz . No. 4 and 5/1958.
