Greding () is a town in the district of Roth, in

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 l ...

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 betwee ...

. It is situated 28 km southeast of Roth bei Nürnberg and 32 km north of

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Ba ...

Geography

Greding is located in the south-eastern corner of

Middle Franconia Middle Franconia (german: Mittelfranken, ) is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the west of Bavaria and borders the state of Baden-Württemberg. The administrative seat is Ansbach; however ...

. The municipal area borders on two neighbouring Bavarian districts,

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese ...

and Neumarkt, and also on the two regions of

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (german: Oberbayern, ; ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat ...

and

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lak ...

. Greding is situated about 32 km north of the city of

on the

A9 Autobahn is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Berlin and Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg. It is the fifth longest autobahn spanning . Route The northern terminus of the A 9 is at the Potsdam interchange, where it merges into the A ...

(junction 57). Greding stands on the river Schwarzach in the

Altmühl The Altmühl (, la, Alchmona, Alcmana, Almonus)
s.v. is a river in

Valley Nature Park. Two hills around the town are the Kalvarienberg and the Galgenberg. The township of Greding includes the villages of Attenhofen, Birkhof, Esselberg, Euerwang, Grafenberg, Großhöbing, Günzenhofen, Hausen, Heimbach, Herrnsberg, Hofberg, Kaising, Kleinnottersdorf, Kraftsbuch, Landerzhofen, Linden, Mettendorf, Obermässing, Österberg, Röckenhofen, Schutzendorf, Untermässing and Viehhausen. Neighbouring townships are Beilngries, Berching, Dietfurt an der Altmühl, Freystadt,

Hilpoltstein Hilpoltstein () is a town in the district of Roth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 10 km southeast of Roth bei Nürnberg and 30 km south of Nuremberg, close to the lake 'Rothsee. History * Origins of the castle and the town date back to the ...

, Kinding and Thalmässing.

History

There are remains of animal jawbones and charcoal fires from early settlements dating from between 10000 BC and 6000 BC. Traces of a

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic settlement have been found dating from 450-350 BC. The first known documentary record of a township is from 1091. In the 11th century the Greding estate came under the ownership of the Bishops of Eichstätt and remained under their jurisdiction until 1803.

Religion

Like most of Bavaria, Greding is predominantly

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Culture and places of interest

Architecture

Greding is surrounded by a 1.25 km 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 .Die Stadtmauer
– Greding website The numerous historic towers throughout the town have earned it the nickname, "The City of 21 Towers" (''Die Stadt der 21 Türme'').

Rathaus

The old town hall stood in the Market Square until the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

. In 1633 the building was burned down in an attempt to extort 1000

Reichsthaler The ''Reichsthaler'' (; modern spelling Reichstaler), or more specifically the ''Reichsthaler specie'', was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for the ...

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 façade is decorated with the arms of the lord of the estate, Prince Bishop Johann Martin von Eyb (1697–1704).Rathaus
- Greding website

The Basilica of St. Martin

This predominantly 12th-century church stands on a hill overlooking the town and is a conspicuous local landmark. St Martins is the largest Romanesque

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

in the former diocese of Eichstätt. It was consecrated by Bishop Otto (1182–1196). The late gothic altar dates from 1480 and is flanked by

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

figures of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

and St John from around 1780. The apse ceiling is painted with images of

Christ 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 relig ...

enthroned and symbols of the Evangelists, and the 15th-century nave

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

es depict St Martin astride a horse, dividing his cloak with a sword for a beggar. The church also contains a number of early renaissance paintings and sculptures.St Martinskirche
- Greding website To the left of St Martin's Church in the cellar of the former Michael's Chapel, dating from the early 12th century, is a so-called

Charnel House A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves. The term can also be used more generally as a description of a pl ...

. This was first used in the 14th century to store the bones of the dead as the graveyard itself became too full. The bones of about 2500 corpses can be seen behind an iron grille.Karner
– Greding website Other buildings of note include the Catholic Church of St. Jakob; the former Episcopal palace (1696) on the market square; and the episcopal hunting lodge (1741), now occupied by the

Raiffeisenbank Raiffeisenbank refers to cooperative banks in Europe that are rooted in the early credit unions of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The name is found in: * Raiffeisen Bankengruppe (Austria), Austrian group of cooperative banks. ** Raiffeisen Zentral ...

Museums

Greding has two museums, the Museum Natur und Mensch (natural history) and the Sparkassenmuseum (a banking museum).

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Greding is located near junction 57 on the

A9 autobahn is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Berlin and Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg. It is the fifth longest autobahn spanning . Route The northern terminus of the A 9 is at the Potsdam interchange, where it merges into the A ...

. The town is served by several local and regional buses, and has direct bus connections 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, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

. A bus service links the town with Kinding (Altmühltal) railway station, which is on the Nuremberg-Munich high-speed rail line which runs through the 7.7 km Euerwangtunnel. The Greding railway station on the Roth-Greding rail line closed in 1972.

Media

The local paper is the ''Hilpoltsteiner Kurier''.

References

{{Authority control Roth (district)