Buch am Forst is a village of 530 inhabitants (1 September 2021)
[ in the district town (''Kreisstadt'') of Lichtenfels in the state of ]Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It is 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) northwest of Lichtenfels and at the western edge of the Lichtenfels Forest (''Lichtenfelser Forst''). ''Bundesautobahn 73
is a motorway in Germany. It connects Suhl to Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, an ...
'' ederal Highwayruns approximately a half-mile (1 km) to the east, while ''Kreisstraße
A Kreisstraße (literally: "district road" or "county road") is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a '' Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße ...
'' istrict RoadLIF27 goes through the village itself.
History
The first recorded mention of Buch am Forst was in 1215, when its name was spelled as ''Buoch''. At that time, it was a part of the joint inheritance (''Ganerbschaft
A ''Ganerbschaft'' (plural: ''Ganerbschaften'' in German), according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs (''Ganerben'') only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corres ...
'') of the Banz Abbey
Banz Abbey (german: Kloster Banz), now known as Banz Castle (german: Schloss Banz), is a former Benedictine monastery, since 1978 a part of the town of Bad Staffelstein north of Bamberg, Bavaria, southern Germany.
History
The abbey was found ...
, the district of Lichtenfels of the Bishopric of Bamberg
The Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg (german: Hochstift Bamberg) was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire. It goes back to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bamberg established at the 1007 synod in Frankfurt, at the behest of King Henry II ...
and the senior line of the von Redwitz family. In 1225 Hermann von Arnstein donated to the Banz Abbey a property in Buch, previously owned by Hugo von Merzebach, and a place, where the Gutenfels Castle was built. But the village still belonged partly to the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg and partly to the Saxon Duchies
The Ernestine duchies (), also known as the Saxon duchies (, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a group of small states whose numb ...
until the end of the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. On 21 August 1811 the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-d ...
handed Buch am Forst completely over to the Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
. The kingdom then assigned Buch am Forst to the '' Mainkreis'' istrict of the Main River which later became ''Obermainkreis'' istrict of the Upper Main Riverin 1817 and then ''Oberfranken'' (Upper Franconia
Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a ''Regierungsbezirk'' (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle F ...
) in 1838. Until the end of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Buch am Forst sat on the border between Saxe-Coburg and Bavaria and served as the customs office for Bavaria. It also had a Forestry Office for the nearby Forest of Lichtenfels. In 1818, it merged with the hamlets of Hammer, Seehof and Forsthub to form a single municipality. Throughout the 1830s, it had a manor, a brewery and 2 mills as well as the customs and forestry offices. By 1912, it had gained a post office but the nearest train station was 2.5 miles (4 km) away at Scherneck-Siemau at Itz Valley Railway
The Itz Valley Railway (german: Itzgrundbahn) was a former, 8 kilometre long branch line in Bavaria, Germany, running from Creidlitz, in the borough of Coburg, to Rossach in the Großheirath, municipality of Großheirath.
The single-tracked line h ...
.[(de]
''Buch am Forst'' auf der Webseite der Stadt Lichtenfels
/ref>
Buch am Forst had 325 residents in 1818, 290 residents in 1831, 300 residents in 1840, 629 residents in 1898, 608 residents in 1912, 802 residents in 1950, 777 residents in 1961, 702 residents in 1970 and 557 residents in 2009.
Religion
Buch am Forst became Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
in 1528 but it did not get its own parish until 1535. The name of its parish church is St. Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and
resurre ...
(German: ''Maria Magdalena''). Its present building was built in 1680. Its interior is decorated with ornate wooden galleries and a dark brown coffered ceiling. A painting of the Twelve Apostles
In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...
, with Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
in the middle, hangs above the altar.
Regular events
* Arbor Festival 'Pflanzkirchweih''in the first weekend of July
* Church Fair 'Kirchweih''.html" ;"title="Kirchweih.html" ;"title="'Kirchweih">'Kirchweih''">Kirchweih.html" ;"title="'Kirchweih">'Kirchweih''on the third Sunday of July
*
Economy
Buch am Forst has two restaurants, a hairdresser, a bakery, grocers, two butchers and a nursery.[(de) http://www.lichtenfels-city.de/index.php?id=495,32]
References
External links
* (de
''Buch am Forst'' auf der Webseite der Stadt Lichtenfels
* (de
*
{{Authority control
Lichtenfels (district)
Villages in Bavaria