Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Oberpfalz

Kloster Gnadenberg (Gnadenberg monastery) was the first Brigittine monastery in southern Germany. It was founded in 1422 by Count Johann I of Neumarkt and his wife Katharina. Katharina knew the order of the Vadstena monastery in Sweden, where she had spent her youth. In 1420 Pope Martinus V gave permission for the construction of the monastery. The official foundation document is dated 3 February 1426. The monasteries of the Brigittine Order (Order of the Most Holy Savior) were designed by the founder of the Order as double monasteries. The first monks came from the monastery of Paradiso near Florence in 1430. After the completion of the convent in 1435, the first nuns with their first abbess Anna Svenson came from the Maribo (Denmark) convent to Gnadenberg. After the reformation in the middle of the 16th century, the monastery went downhill until it was disbanded in 1570. From 1577 onwards, the properties were sold or fief used. In 1635, during the Thirty Years' War, the Swedish Tropics set fire to the church and parts of the monastery. Except for some buildings of the convent, Gnadenberg has been a ruin ever since.

The charming pilgrimage church Maria Hilf (St. Mary's Help) is dating back to 1694. In that year the son of the local shepherd Johann Prant was suddenly paralyzed. Out of desperation over this stroke of fate, he "became engaged to Our Lady" and promised to erect a Martersäule (scourging pillar) in her honour at Lengenbach, should his child recover again. After the boy recovered he received permission from the diocese of Eichstätt, after examining the recovery of his son, to erect a chapel in honour of the Mother of God in Lengenbach. Because he had often seen a chapel in his dreams, he started building one with his own hands, high and round like a Martersäule . Very soon the pilgrimage to the Mother of God began and increased rapidly. This led to the plan to build a larger chapel. The master bricklayer Leonhard Preindl from nearby Deining created the current building (1757 – 1760). Little by little the church was equipped. In 1768 it became its wonderful ceiling fresco "Assumption of the Virgin Mary"; two years later followed by the ornamented pulpit. Nowadays the interior is blocked by a fence, because in the seventies of the last century twentyfive of the partly very valuable votive pictures were stolen. So I had to take my pictures from behind that fence.

The Walhalla - modeled on the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens - is a Hall of Fame to honor German speaking artists, writers, philosophers, scientists, politicians and other historic men and women. (For me as a Dutchman it was a bit odd to see some famous countrymen surrounded by numerous Germans.) The Walhalla is named after the ‘Valhalla’ of Norse mythology. King Ludwig I of Bavaria commissioned conceived his Temple of Fame in the early 19th Century. After choosing the location on a hilltop overlooking the river Danube, he ordered the construction of a Greek Revival monument. The building, called Walhalla, was built from 1830 to 1842 and became a symbol of "the German nation" at a time when Germany was a patchwork of kingdoms and small states. The large hall of the Walhalla is lined with marble and statuary, displaying some 130 busts and plaques of famous people from the German-speaking, who made notable contributions to German art, architecture, and history. Since 1962 new busts have been added to the original 96 at intervals of five to seven years.