The Giant Cask or Giant Barrel (german: Riesenfass, locally just ''Fass'' or, in the local

Palatine dialect Palatine German (endonym: ; Standard German: ), also known as Palatine Dutch, is a Rhenish Franconian language and is spoken in the Upper Rhine Valley, roughly in the area between Zweibrücken, Kaiserslautern, Alzey, Worms, Germany, Worms, Lu ...

, the ''Därgemer Fass''), is a tourist attraction in the

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

and district town of

Bad Dürkheim Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine ...

in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. The wine barrel has a diameter of 13.5 metres, a volume of about 1,700,000 litres or 1,700 m³ and is thus the largest

cask A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

in the world.''Die Fassgeschichte''
at www.duerkheimer-fass.de. Retrieved 13 Jun 2014 However, it is not used for the storage of wine, but houses a restaurant.

Location

The Giant Cask on ''St.-Michaels-Allee 1'' is northeast of the old town in the water meadows of the

Isenach The Isenach is a left tributary of the Rhine in the northeastern Palatine region of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is nearly long. Course The Isenach rises in the northern Palatinate Forest, southwest of Carlsberg Hertlingshausen. Its source in ...

stream on the western edge of the 45,000 m² ''Brühlwiesen'' meadows. Every year on the second and third week in September the Dürkheim ''

Wurstmarkt The Wurstmarkt (literally: Sausage market) in the spa town of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany is the world's biggest wine festival Annual wine festivals celebrate viticulture and usually occur after the harvest of the grapes whi ...

'' (lit.: "sausage market") takes place on these fields. The ''Wurstmarkt'' is the biggest

wine festival Annual wine festivals celebrate viticulture and usually occur after the harvest of the grapes which, in the northern hemisphere, generally falls at the end of September and runs until well into October or later. They are common in most wine regio ...

in the world, playing host to over 600,000 visitors. Access to the ''Weinfass'' and the ''Wurstmarkt'' is from the B 37 federal highway (

Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...

–

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

) just to the north.

History

The barrel was built in 1934 by Bad Dürkheim

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

owner and master cooper, Fritz Keller, using wood to fashion it into the standard shape using traditional methods, albeit oversized. To construct the cask nearly 200 spruce trees were felled in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...

, all about 40 metres high. One tree was needed for each of the 178 staves, each 15 metres long and 15 cm thick. In all, more than 200 m³ of wood was used. The timber was supplied by the Krauth & Co. Sawmill in Rotenbach in the Enztal valley.Telephone enquiry to the sawmill by German Wikipedia editor, Chronist 47. With the completion of the Giant Cask in Dürkheim, it superseded by a long way the famous

Heidelberg Tun The Heidelberg Tun (german: Großes Fass), or Great Heidelberg Tun, is an extremely large wine vat contained within the cellars of Heidelberg Castle. There have been four such barrels in the history of Heidelberg. In 1751, the year of its constru ...

which, with a length of 9 metres, a diameter of 7 metres and capacity of 221,726 litres, and was actually used to store wine, had previously been the largest cask in the world.

Description

The giant Dürkheim barrel bears the inscription ''Dürkheimer Riesenfaß'' in the old German script on the bottom of the barrel which faces east. The interior is a type of

wine bar A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin, ...

. It can take just under 430 guests on two levels (ground floor and gallery). Because of the number of visitors, in 1958 the wooden "tub" (''Bütt'') was added. This is an oversized tub, constructed in the same style as the ''Riesenfass'' and has space for about 120 guests. The bar is operated for most of the year in the ''Bütt''; the barrel itself is only accessible to guests during the Wurstmarkt and for large groups by prior arrangement.

Pictures

File:Riesenfass Bad Durkheim10092016 1.png, Photographed from transportable observation tower "City Skyliner" on Wurstmarkt 2016 File:Riesenfass Bad Durkheim Untergeschoss10092016.png, Inn in lower floor File:Riesenfass Bad Durkheim Obergeschoss10092016.png, Upper floor File:Riesenfass 03.JPG , Side view

References

Literature

* * * *

External links

Dürkheimer Riesenfass
* {{portal bar, Drink Wine bars Buildings and structures in Bad Dürkheim (district)