The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven
administrative districts
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
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 ...
,
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 ...
, and is located in the east of Bavaria.
Geography
The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous
pond
A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from ...
s and
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
s in its lowland regions. By contrast with other regions of Germany it is more rural in character and more sparsely settled. It borders (clockwise from the north) on
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 ...
, the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
,
Lower Bavaria,
Upper Bavaria and
Middle Franconia.
Notable regions are:
*
Stiftland, former estate and territorial lordship of
Waldsassen Abbey
Waldsassen Abbey (German: ''Abtei Waldsassen'') is a Cistercian nunnery, formerly a Cistercian monastery, located on the River Wondreb at Waldsassen near Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz, in Bavaria, Germany, close to the border with the Czech Republic. ...
with the market town of
Konnersreuth
Konnersreuth is a municipality in the district of Tirschenreuth in Bavaria, Germany.
It is situated in the northeast foothills of the Steinwald mountains between the Fichtelgebirge mountains and the Upper Palatinate Forest, close to the Czech bor ...
,
Fockenfeld Abbey, the town of
Waldsassen
Waldsassen (Northern Bavarian: ''Woidsassen'') is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria.
Geography
Waldsassen is the northernmost municipality of the Upper Palatinate region. In the northeast, it borders ...
and about 150 other villages.
*
Upper Palatine Forest with deep valleys and many castles
*
Upper Palatine Lake District with the
Steinberger See
*
Upper Palatine Jura, part of the
Franconian Jura
The Franconian Jura ( , , or ) is an upland in Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. Located between two rivers, the Danube in the south and the Main in the north, its peaks reach elevations of up to and it has an area of some 7053.8 km2. Emil Meyn ...
*
Steinwald including the
Teichelberg and
Pechbrunn
*
Waldnaab/
Wondreb Depression
*
Bavarian Forest
The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest
The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is co ...
, together with the
Bohemian Forest a large-scale protected area. A rock outcrop west of the summit cross of the
Großer Arber
The Großer Arber (); cs, Velký Javor, "Great Maple") or Great Arber,e.g. Mauser, Wolfram and Monika Prasch (eds). ''Regional Assessment of Global Change Impacts: The Project GLOWA-Danube''. Heidelberg: Springer, 2006. p. 94. is the highest pea ...
() is 1,439.6 m, the highest point in Upper Palatinate.
*
Kunisch Mountains
*
Naab valley
*
Vils valley
* Danube valley, western part of the
Gäuboden
*
Lower Bavarian Hills south of the Danube
History
At the beginning of the
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 150 ...
the region now known as the Upper Palatinate was part of the
Bavarian March of the Nordgau
The Margraviate of the Nordgau (german: Markgrafschaft Nordgau) or Bavarian Nordgau () was a medieval administrative unit ('' Gau'') on the frontier of the German Duchy of Bavaria. It comprised the region north of the Danube and Regensburg (Ratisb ...
. The region took its current name no earlier than the early 14th century.
From the mid 13th century much of the region was controlled by the
Wittelsbach dynasty and until 1329 was ruled by the Wittelsbach
Elector Palatine as part of the larger
County Palatine of the Rhine
The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kin ...
(german: Pfalzgrafschaft bei Rhein, links=no). By the
1329 Treaty of Pavia, the Wittelsbach territories were divided between two branches of the dynasty. The territory around the Rhine river in the west became known as the Rhenish Palatinate (german: Rheinpfalz, links=no) or Lower Palatinate, and is today usually known simply as
the Palatinate (german: Pfalz, links=no); it is from this territory that the modern German 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 ...
derives its name. By contrast, the territory to the east centred on
Amberg became known as the Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, links=no), upper and lower in this case referring to the elevation of the territories (compare
Low and
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
,
Upper and
Lower Lusatia
Lower Lusatia (; ; ; szl, Dolnŏ Łużyca; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the sou ...
,
Upper and
Lower Lorraine
The Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, also called Northern Lotharingia, Lower Lorraine or Northern Lorraine (and also referred to as '' Lothier'' or '' Lottier'' ,
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
).
Cadet branches of the Wittelsbach dynasty also ruled over smaller territories in
Neuburg and
Sulzbach. As a result of the Elector Palatine
Frederick V Frederick V or Friedrich V may refer to:
* Frederick V, Duke of Swabia (1164–1170)
*Frederick V, Count of Zollern (d.1289)
*Frederick V, Burgrave of Nuremberg (c. 1333–1398), German noble
*Frederick V of Austria (1415–1493), or Frederick III ...
's abortive claim to the
Bohemian throne in 1619–1620, the Upper Palatinate, along with the rest of his lands, were declared forfeit to the Emperor and, along with the Electoral title, given to the
Duke of Bavaria
The following is a list of rulers during the history of Bavaria. Bavaria was ruled by several dukes and kings, partitioned and reunited, under several dynasties. Since 1949, Bavaria has been a democratic state in the Federal Republic of Germ ...
. Although the Lower Palatinate was restored to Frederick's son by the
Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Upper Palatinate remained under the Elector of Bavaria, and has remained a part of Bavaria ever since. The smaller territories of Sulzbach and Neuburg came to Bavaria in 1777 when
Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine inherited the Bavarian lands of his Wittelsbach cousin
Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria. The city of
Regensburg, an
Imperial Free City
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...
, was not joined with the rest of the region until the end of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
in 1806 and the end of the short-lived
Principality of Regensburg under
Carl von Dalberg, which existed from 1803 to 1810.
After the founding of 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 ...
the state was totally reorganised and, in 1808, divided into 15 administrative districts (german: Regierungsbezirke, links=no; singular '), in Bavaria called ' (literally "Circles", singular: '). They were created in the fashion of the
French departments
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety-s ...
, quite even in size and population, and named after their main rivers. In the following years, due to territorial changes (e.g. the loss of
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
, the addition of the Palatinate), the number of ' in the kingdom was reduced to 8. One of these was the ' (
Regen
Regen (Northern Bavarian: ''Reng'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the district town of the district of Regen.
Geography
Regen is situated on the great Regen River, located in the Bavarian Forest.
Divisions
Originally the town consisted ...
District). In 1837 king
Ludwig I of Bavaria
en, Louis Charles Augustus
, image = Joseph Karl Stieler - King Ludwig I in his Coronation Robes - WGA21796.jpg
, caption = Portrait by Joseph Stieler, 1825
, succession=King of Bavaria
, reign =
, coronation ...
renamed the ' after historical territorial names and tribes of the area. This also involved some border changes or territorial swaps. Thus the district name of Regenkreis changed to Upper Palatinate.
The development of railroads in the area is covered in the book '.
Districts
''Landkreise'' (districts):
*
Amberg-Sulzbach
Amberg-Sulzbach ( bar, label=Northern Bavarian, Amberg-Suizboch) is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It surrounds but does not include the city of Amberg. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Neustadt ...
*
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
*** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albania ...
*
Neumarkt
*
Neustadt an der Waldnaab
Neustadt an der Waldnaab ( Bavarian: ''Neistodt an da Woidnaab'') is a municipality in Bavaria, Germany, and county seat of the district Neustadt an der Waldnaab.
Sister cities
Neustadt an der Waldnaab has one sister city:
* Hays, Kansas
...
*
Regensburg
*
Schwandorf
*
Tirschenreuth
Tirschenreuth ( Northern Bavarian: ''Dirschnrad'', ''Diascharad'') is the capital city of the district of Tirschenreuth. It is located in the northeast of Bavaria, very close to the Czech-Bavarian border.
Geography
Tirschenreuth is located in th ...
''Kreisfreie Städte'' (district-free towns):
*
Amberg
*
Regensburg
*
Weiden in der Oberpfalz
Population
Historical Population of Upper Palatinate:
* 1900: 553,841
* 1910: 600,284
* 1939: 694,742
* 1950: 906,822
* 1961: 898,580
* 1970: 963,833
* 1987: 969,868
* 2002: 1,088,929
* 2005: 1,089,543
* 2006: 1,087,939
* 2008: 1,085,216
* 2010: 1,081,206
* 2015: 1,092,339
* 2019: 1,112,102
Economy
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was €47.3 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.4% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €39,200 or 130% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 103% of the EU average.
Main sights
Major tourist attractions include the former ducal residences
Regensburg with the
Walhalla nearby and
Amberg, the city of
Weiden and
Waldsassen Abbey
Waldsassen Abbey (German: ''Abtei Waldsassen'') is a Cistercian nunnery, formerly a Cistercian monastery, located on the River Wondreb at Waldsassen near Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz, in Bavaria, Germany, close to the border with the Czech Republic. ...
including the Kappl Trinity church nearby. Scenic attractions include the river
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
and the
Upper Palatine Forest. A sight is also the town of
Neumarkt and the pilgrim church of Maria Hilf in
Freystadt
:''"Freystadt" is also the German names for Kisielice and Kożuchów, Poland.''
Freystadt (; Northern Bavarian: ''Freystod'') is a town in the district of Neumarkt in Bavaria. It is situated near the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, 14 km southw ...
nearby.
File:Walhalla commemoration hall.JPG, Walhalla in 2015
File:Kappl 2012 03.jpg, Trinity church of Kappl
File:Wallfahrtskirche Maria-Hilf Freystadt von Westen.JPG, Maria-Hilf
See also
*
Lower Palatinate
References
External links
Official website(German)
Official website of government(German, English, Czech)
wiki-en.genealogy.net
{{Authority control
Government regions of Germany
NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union