Greding is a small town located in the south-eastern corner of Middle Franconia. The municipal area borders on the Bavarian districts of Eichstätt and Neumarkt, and also on the two regions of Upper Bavaria and Upper Palatinate. Greding stands on the river Schwarzach in the Altmühl Valley Nature Park. Located 32 km north of Ingolstadt on the A9 Autobahn. This was my second time driving on a German Autobahn. The thing that I like best about driving on the Autobahn system is not that on large sections of it you can drive as fast as you want, but in those sections you can drive without having to look at your speedometer. This is perhaps negated by the fact that you have to spend more time looking in your rear view mirror, because cars can come up behind you very quickly.
There are remains of animal jawbones and charcoal fires from early settlements dating from between 100,000 BCE and 6,000 BCE. Traces of a Celtic settlement have been found dating from 450-350 BCE. The first known documentary record of a township in the area is from 1091 CE. In the 11th Century the Greding estate came under the ownership of the Bishops of Eichstätt and remained under their jurisdiction until 1803.
The old town hall stood in the Market Square until the Thirty Years War. In 1633 the building was burned down in an attempt to extort 1000 Reichsthaler ransom money from the citizens. The site is now occupied by a fountain. The current town hall building was erected in 1699 and is thought to be the work of the Eichstätt architect Jakob Engel. The facade is decorated with the arms of the lord of the estate, Prince Bishop Johann Martin von Eyb (1697 - 1704).
Greding is surrounded by a 1.25km town wall with fortified gate houses and towers. The wall was erected during the rule of the Prince Bishop Friedrich IV, Count of Öttingen (1383 - 1415). A great fire in 1503 destroyed two gate houses, a tower and part of the town hall. Today, 20 towers can be seen around the town, almost all used as private houses. The large fortified gate houses to be seen are the Fürstentor, the Eichstätter Tor and the Nürnberger Tor.
Befreiungshalle Kelheim
On the buttresses, that take the thrust form the dome, stand 18 monumental limestone figures, at almost six meters tall, representing the Germanic tribes which took part in the battle for liberation from the tyranny of Napoleon. On top of the line of masonry behind these sculptures there rises a colonnade which is completed above by an architrave with a metope frieze. The open gallery above is edged with a stone balustrade with baluster posts. The section of the wall which surrounds the copper roof and is set back a little is segmented by 18 pilasters, on which rest trophies 2.5 meters in height (armour, helmet and shield). The shallowly rising conical coper roof, containing 16,725 kg of copper, supports in its centre a shallowly inset lantern sealed with glass.
The hall, standing at 45 meters, with a domed vault has a diameter of 29 metres at the ground level. The shell of the wall opens above a base multiply segmented into 18 alcoves, above this into a colonnade. The room's many and various divisions into arcade, gallery and dome give it extraordinary acoustics, repeatedly echoing even the slightest sound.
The concentric mosaic of red, brown, grey and white marble; in the centre circle, in black letters on a yellow background of Siena marble is the inscription (translated) "May the Germans never forget why the battle for liberation was necessary and the means by which it was won."
The 18 deep alcoves, enclosed by segmented arches of Carrara marble and interlinked by rectangular doors, form a self-contained walkway behind the circle of the Goddesses of Victory with linked hands.
The plaques above the lower arches bear the names of the important generals from the wars of liberation.
From the upper walkway one gets phenomenal view of the surrounding countryside. Here you can see the Danube as it flows through Kelheim.
As I was walking around the top of the Hall of Liberation, I started to think about other European monuments I was familiar with, and it struck me that in North America we tend to build monuments to mourn or remember our dead (even in wars we won) in many other places around the world they are not afraid to build monuments to remember both those who lost their lives in conflict, but the fact that their lives lead to their country's victory over the evil they were fighting.
Below is the Danube river as it flows through the Weltenburg Gorge. The cliffs faces in the picture at the right are also know as the Shoulders of the Danube. Unfortunately, this gorge often gets blocked with ice during the spring breakup and this has caused significant flooding in the area. On the wall, in the picture at the bottom right, are markets that indicated high water marks during different years. The highest one records high water on 31 March 1845.
There were lots of people around when we were there because the monastery was holding its annual Christmas Market. Walking around there were lots of stalls selling local crafts, food, and Gluhwein (mulled wine). I picked up a few collectibles to use as gifts. Because I was driving, I didn't get any of the gluhwein, but it sure did smell good.
