Rural Franconian Jews
Long-established village communities, with part of the museum in a former synagogue.
Straktur — CC BY 3.0 · Ermell — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0
A regional museum in the village of Tüchersfeld, in historic houses built hard against huge limestone rocks — the village's famous image. Franconian Switzerland is not in Switzerland: it is a limestone hill region north of Nuremberg, given the name in the nineteenth century when promoting landscape became fashionable, and comparing any rocky area to Switzerland was a way of drawing visitors. The region is full of caves, isolated rock towers and small hilltop castles. The museum covers the region's geology and fossils, rural life and crafts, and the history of its Jews — rural Franconia had long-established village Jewish communities, and part of the museum occupies a building that was a synagogue. The region itself is the larger draw: it has the densest concentration of small breweries in Germany, along with caves open to visitors and well-known climbing routes. Hours are seasonal and it closes in winter.
Long-established village communities, with part of the museum in a former synagogue.
The region holds Germany's largest concentration of small breweries.
The region is full of show caves and climbing routes.
Tüchersfeld, Franconian Switzerland
The Devil's Cave at Pottenstein, the region's best-known show cave, Gössweinstein castle, and the rock villages such as Tüchersfeld and Pottenstein. The region is also known for the Osterbrunnen tradition — village fountains decorated with painted eggs in spring, a striking sight in April.
Because the Franconian villages kept a local brewing tradition that died out elsewhere under industrial production. Many villages have their own brewery serving a single inn, and some have been run by the same family for centuries. The result is that this small region has the most breweries per head of population in the world.
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