"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world. Kindness is the golden chain by which our world is bound together."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe====================================================================
(in east-central Germany) The historic region and Land (state) of Thuringia extends eastward from the Werra River (a headstream of the Weser) to beyond the Saale River as far as the Pleisse and northward from the Thuringian Forest and the northernmost parts of the Franconian Forest to the southern foothills of the Harz mountains. Much of the landscape of southern Thuringia is characterized by the rounded hills of the Thuringian Forest, whose northern slopes reach elevations of about 900 meters. Lying between the Thuringian Forest and the Harz range on the northern border is the Thuringian Basin, a fertile agricultural region. The southeastern portion of the state consists of the mountainous region of the Franconian Forest and the Vogtland. Eastern Thuringia is traversed by the westerly offshoots of the Ore Mountains, while the Rhön Mountains extend into western Thuringia. Erfurt, Jena, Gera, and Weimar are the main urban localities in the state and serve as regional centers for service activities. A tourist industry is focused on cultural activities and historical sites in Eisenach, Meiningen, and Weimar -- and on the scenic beauties of the Harz mountains and the Thuringian Forest.
+ Jena, Erfurt, Ilmenau, and Weimar are sites of universities. Weimar is also a major historical and contemporary center for culture in Thuringia. The city was home to some of Germany’s most important historical cultural figures, such as the writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the dramatist Friedrich von Schiller, whose former homes are now museums. Those museums, along with more than a dozen other buildings and parks throughout Weimar dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, were collectively designated the UNESCO World Heritage site of Classical Weimar in 1998. Weimar has numerous other sights, notably the Bauhaus Museum, also a World Heritage site, as well as art galleries, archives, and theaters, several of which occupy buildings with historical and architectural significance.
+ Featured here is Erfurt, Thuringia's capital, which is one of central Germany's most beguiling and significant cities. Holding its head as high as the former capital to the east, Weimar, it is a very well-preserved medieval city of grandiose churches, cobbled market squares, captivating museums and outstanding architecture. As a university town, its contemporary culture is anything but backward-looking. Straddling the Gera River, Erfurt was founded by St Boniface as a bishopric in 742, then propelled to prosperity in the Middle Ages as a major center of the woad trade. In 1392, rich merchants founded the university, allowing students to study common law, rather than religious law. (It was here that Martin Luther studied philosophy before taking holy orders.)
No comments:
Post a Comment