Waldbreitbach Christmas Village
Waldbreitbach Christmas Village is a slogan under which the Rhineland-Palatinate municipality of Waldbreitbach advertises a crib collection and associated Christmas attractions in December and January . Until the 2015/16 season the slogan was Christmas and Nativity Village Waldbreitbach.
history
In the late 1990s, a national Christmas tourism to Waldbreitbach began in the late 1990s, triggered by a nativity scene collection that now (as of 2014) includes over 2200 exhibits and the local former hotelier Gustel Hertling's own crib designs.
The collector has been a certified nativity builder since 2008 and runs his own nativity school in collaboration with Austrian colleagues; there is a crib association in Waldbreitbach that cooperates with the regional crib association in Salzburg ; Crib building courses are offered every autumn.
Permanent nativity scene exhibition
The exhibition in the “International Nativity Scene and Bible Museum”, which is open all year round on weekends and public holidays, and which varies and includes additions every year, contains historical and contemporary nativity scenes of various sizes and artistic quality from 80 countries with a clear focus on Europe and South America on 720 m². But there are also African countries, India, Japan, China, Oceania and Alaska represented. Different techniques and materials are documented; In addition to cribs with carved or terracotta figures, there are crochet cribs made of fabric, fretwork, paper cut cribs, cribs made of plaster of paris and sheet metal, cribs made of Murano glass and root wood cribs , as well as miniature versions used as travel cribs; the smallest is no bigger than a cherry pit.
In 1998 Hertling built a natural root nativity scene in the Maria Himmelfahrt parish church, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records for this year as “the largest in the world” ; it is set up annually at Christmas time in the Catholic parish church and can be viewed from the 1st of Advent to the 2nd of February ( Maria Lichtmess ). In 2006 the nativity set maker beat his own record with an even larger nativity mountain landscape with running water (8.50 m high on 130 m² floor space, permanent in the exhibition hall).
Since 2008, the year of Mother Rosa's beatification , Hertling has dedicated a room-filling design in a crib construction to the biography of the founder of the Waldbreitbach Franciscan Sisters from her childhood in the Fockenbachtal to her monastery life in Glockscheid.
The permanent exhibition is supplemented every year by special exhibitions. So there was, for example
- 2009 in collaboration with Reinhold Pfandzelter from Urbach , a member of the Alsatian tin figure association AFCFEF, the topic “France”; A Provencal village with a town hall, farms, shops and almost 60 santons - mercenaries, fishermen, traders - could be seen here.
- 2010 the focus on "Bohemia and the Czech Republic" in collaboration with Max Schneckenbühl, a teacher and crib collector from Horressen , with artistic box nativity scenes from the 19th century from the Grulich Ländchen , famous for its nativity scenes before 1945 , landscape nativity scenes from Egerland and Marktredwitz , paper, wood -, straw, corn-cob leaf and gingerbread cribs as well as contemporary designs by Czech artists living in Germany such as Ilona Klawitter (special exhibition for this artist also in 2011).
Attractions
The place, marketed under the slogan Christmas Village Waldbreitbach , has a number of other attractions during Advent:
- In 1998 Hertling built a natural root nativity scene in the Maria Himmelfahrt parish church, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records for this year as “the largest in the world” ; it is set up annually at Christmas time in the Catholic parish church and can be viewed from the 1st of Advent to the 2nd of February ( Maria Lichtmess ).
- The “Star of Bethlehem” has been shining at Christmas time since 1999 from around 3,500 lights, attached to 3.5 m high wooden poles, on the slopes above Waldbreitbach. Around 35 nativity scenes are set up along the roadside in Stern, below the Marienhaus monastery .
- A small nativity trail and a large crib trail after Christmas are set up for Advent . In addition to the nativity scene exhibition, the Kleine Krippenweg touches the parish church as well as 39 shops, restaurants, service providers and historical sites with nativity scenes for around 2 km within the town center. The Grosse Krippenweg runs with 32 stations - also accessible by car - for around 25 km around the former municipality ; Roßbach , Elsbach , Siebenmorgen , Verscheid , Glockscheid , Niederbreitbach , Hausen and Over are touched .
- Every year since 1995 an oversized Advent calendar has been attached to a historic half-timbered house.
- In 1997 an 8 m high Christmas pyramid was built by a local locksmith's shop according to plans from Schwarzenberg and was first erected on the staircase to the parish church.
- Larger- than-life Seiffen figurines made of spruce wood have been erected on this church staircase since 1998 : miners , angels , smokers , nutcrackers are supposed to symbolize the bond with the Ore Mountains against the background that the Westerwald around Waldbreitbach was also a historical mining region. Santa and Yarn Men are local ingredients.
- In Advent 2008, an Advent wreath floating on the Wied with a diameter of around 10 m and head-high candles was added.
- A floating nativity scene was installed in Advent 2014, which is illuminated with changing lighting in the evening.
- Concerts in the Catholic parish church accompany Waldbreitbach's main season.
- Since 2003 there has been a carillon at the town hall five times a day during Advent. 23 bells with 60 different melodies are in use.
- On the second and third weekend in Advent, the Christkindchenmarkt takes place in the town center on Saturdays and Sundays and is organized by the Waldbreitbach trade association, an association of all traders in the community. Handicrafts and agricultural products from the region are sold.