Fulda

Fulda (Fuld in English historically) is a 68,635 inhabitants city by the river Fulda in the eastern part of Hesse, Germany, not far from the federal states of Thuringia and Bavaria. Fulda is the largest city in the East Hesse region and its political and cultural center, as well as the seat of the Diocese of Fulda.

How do I arrive to Fulda?

  Fulda is well connected with other cities in Hesse and other states.

• Train: there are often trains to important destinations within Hesse like Kassel (aprox. 30 minutes), Bad Hersfeld (aprox. 30 minutes), Hanau (aprox. 40 minutes), Alsfeld (aprox. 45 minutes), Gelnhausen (aprox. 45 minutes) or Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 55 minutes). There are also trains to destinations in other federal states such as Bad Kissingen (aprox. 25 minutes), Würzburg (aprox. 35 minutes) and Schweinfurt (aprox. 1 hour 5 minutes) in Bavaria or Eisenach (aprox. 1 hour 35 minutes) in Thuringia. 
• Bus: there are buses to many cities in Hesse and neighbouring states.
• Car: having a car many destinations can be reached easily in Hesse such as Hünfeld (aprox. 25 minutes), Bad Hersfeld (aprox. 40 minutes), Alsfeld (aprox. 45 minutes), Gelnhausen (aprox. 45 minutes), Hanau (aprox. 50 minutes), Gießen and Kassel (aprox. 1 hour 15 minutes) or Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 1 hour 20 minutes). There are also trains to destinations in other federal states such as Bad Kissingen (aprox. 50 minutes), Schweinfurt (aprox. 1 hour 5 minutes), Würzburg (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes) in Bavaria or Eisenach (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes) in Thuringia. 

History

In 744 it was founded the Benedictine monastery of Fulda by St. Sturm (disciple of Saint Boniface), supported by early Pippinid and Carolingian rulers, and serving as a base for missionaries that accompanied Charlemagne's armies to fully conquer and convert pagan Saxony. After his martyrdom by the Frisians, the relics of Saint Boniface were brought back to Fulda. Between 790 and 819 the community rebuilt the main monastery church to more fittingly house the relics (based in the original 4th-century Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome). Rabanus Maurus served as abbot at Fulda from 822 to 842. Prince-abbot Balthasar von Dernbach adopted a policy of counter-reformation and in 1571 called in the Jesuits to found a school and college adn, while his predecessors had tolerated Protestantism, Balthasar ordered his subjects either to return to the Catholic faith or leave his territories (as a sovereign principality it was subject only to the German emperor). Fulda became a bishopric in 1752, went through a Baroque building campaign in the 18th century and the prince-abbots were given the additional title of prince-bishop, ruling Fulda and the surrounding region until it was dissolved by Napoleon I in 1802. The city was given to the short-lived Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda in 1803, annexed to the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1806 and in 1809 to the Principality of Frankfurt. After the Congress of Vienna, most of the territory went to the Electorate of Hesse, which Prussia annexed in 1866. Fulda lends its name to the Fulda Gap, a traditional east–west invasion route used by Napoleon I and others that during the Cold War was presumed to be an invasion route for any conventional war between NATO and Soviet forces.

What can I visit in Fulda?

  Fulda is a city whose designed is mainly Baroque, having even a quarter of unique cohesion with magnificent buildings in Baroque styles from the 18th century (Barockviertel). The city still keeps parts of the gate that separated the city and the monastery district such as Paulus Gate (in its current location since 1771) or Hexenturm (a 14 m high tower that dates back to the 12th century). For people who plan to visit its mains highlights it's highly recommended Fulda Museum Pass (18€/ 16€  adults/ reduced) that includes the entrance to Vonderau Museum, Fulda City Palace, Fulda Catholic Cathedral Museum, Fasanerie Palace, German Firefighter Museum and Fulda Children Academy.

These are Fulda's main attractions:

• Fulda Catholic Cathedral (11-17 Tue-Sun; 3€/ 2€  adults/ reduced): Baroque style Dom built according to the plans of Johann Dientzenhofer in the early-18th century in the former abbey church of the Fulda Monastery, being the seat of the Diocese of Fulda since 1752. The cathedral used to be once the largest basilica north of the Alps and is the grave church of St. Boniface. The façade has the typical decorative elements of Baroque style and the interior is in white, combining elements of St. Peter's Basilica and St. John Lateran in Rome. One of the most spectacular chapels is Bonifatius Chapel (under the cathedral) that houses the richly decorated sarcophagus of St. Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans and a destination of the annual St. Boniface pilgrimage. Furthermore the cathedral hosts many more important people buried on it, such as King Conrad I and Countess Anna of Hesse (as well as many of the prince abbots, prince-bishops and bishops).
• Fulda Catholic Cathedral Museum (10-12:30 and 13:30-17.30 Tue-Sat, 12:30-17:30 Sun; 3€/ 2.50€/ 2€  adults/ reduced/ students and people under 18): small museum that has exhibitions on the history of the monastery, cathedral and diocese with a focus on the person of St. Boniface. It contains numerous liturgical vestments and vessels (including the 18th century Silver Altar) and a reliquary for the head of Saint Boniface and the dagger with which he was murdered.
  
• St. Michael Catholic Church (10-18 from Apr to Oct; 14-16 from Nov to Mar; free): church with pre-Romanesque origins, being the oldest building in Fulda, the oldest church of the Holy Sepulcher in Germany and one of the oldest churches north of the Alps. The temple was commissioned by abbot Eigil in 818 and the present day church was created after renovations in the 10th and 11th centuries. The highlight of the church are its frescoes from the 11th century and the rotunda and eight-column crypt, preserved from the originally Carolingian building.
• Fulda City Palace (10-17 Tue-Sun; 3.50€): palace built as the residence of the Fulda prince abbots and prince-bishops that is in its current form since the expansion that took place in Baroque style in the 18th century by Johann Dientzenhofer. After secularization it became part of the Principality of Hesse and was partially rebuilt in Neoclassic style under Elector Wilhelm I. The palace has classicist living rooms, a nice Baroque staircase and the Rococo prince's hall and the cabinet of mirrors. Today it is used by the city administration. Around it are located Fulda City Palace Gardens (7-22:30 from Apr to Oct; 7-21 from Nov to Mar; free), a garden that was initially laid out as a Baroque but partially redesigned into an Englishgarden in the 17th century. Its most spectacular sight is Floravase, a Baroque sculpture by Johann Friedrich Humbach, one of the most important garden sculptures in Europe, that symbolizes the flower goddess Flora on a vase.
  
• Fulda Orangery: building from 1724 that has particulary nice Baroque interiors (especially Apollo Hall and the terrace area to Floravase). Today it belongs to a hotel that has a cafe and restaurant too.
  
• St. Maria Abbey in Fulda (10-11:30 and 14-15:30 Mon-Sat): Benedictine nunnery founded in 1626 by the abbot of Fulda Johann-Bernhard Schenck zu Schweinsberg, being one of the few monasteries in Germany whose complex has been preserved in its original structure and size and has been inhabited throughout. The church is decorated with elements of the late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles, having an spectacular staircase that leads from the lower church room to an apse with high altar. 
• Severikirche: Catholic church in Gothic style that was founded in the 15th century, becoming the guild chapel of wool weavers (largest guild of Fulda at the time). It was not used during the Reformation and in the 17th century it was the first monastery church of the Franciscans  when they were called to Fulda (being later the parish church of the garrison).
  
• St. Blasius Catholic Church (9-18; free): church, first built here in the 10th century (although it has been rebuilt several times), that is the latest Baroque building in Fulda, built between 1770 and 1786. It keeps a tower from the previous Gothic building and the vaults above the central nave depict the expulsion of the merchants from the temple by Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount, frescoes by Johannes Andreas Herrlein. The church has some wonderful altarpieces.
• Kanzlerpalais: Baroque building from 1735 that was initially the residence of Chancellor Wagner and from 1782 to 1900 it was the town hall of Fulda. Today houses a adult education center and a youth education center.
  
• Vonderau Museum (10-17 Tue-Sun; 3.50€/ 2.30€  adults/ reduced): museum that shows a permanent exhibition on the cultural history of Fulda and region, having also a section on natural history. The most important part of the collection is the one about prehistory in the Fulda district, including numerous exhibits on the Celtic settlement of the Fulda area (especially about the town-like settlement oppidum Milseburg). It has another exhibition is dedicated to painting and a planetarium too.
• Heilig-Geist Church: hospital church built by Andreas Gallasini from 1729 to 1733 in the Baroque style typical of Fulda at that time to substitue a previous Gothic hospital chapel.
• Frauenberg Monastery: late-Baroque style Franciscan monastery from the 1760s that has a church, a guest house, a cloister garden and a cemetery too. From the monastery there are great views of Fulda and the area of Rhön and Vogelsberg.
  
• German Firefighter Museum (10-17 Tue-Sun from Apr to Oct; 10-16 Tue-Sun from Nov to Mar; 7€/ 6€  adults/ retiree and students): museum whose exhibition shows the history of active and passive fire protection in German-speaking countries, going from early humans (even homo erectus) through the Middle Ages to the end of the First World War (1918). The museum displays many technical equipment and fire brigade equipment.
  
• Fasanerie Palace (guided tours on 10-17 Tue-Sun; 9€/ 7.50€/ 4€  adults/ reduced/ people under 18): Schloss located in the countryside that was built around 1710 and was continually expanded until the plans of the princely court architect Andreas Gallasini in 1757. It served as a summer residence until the middle of the 19th century and the Princess Anna of Prussia lived in the castle until 1918. It can be visited some rooms of the palace, a collection of furniture and furnishings from the 18th and 19th centuries and an important portrait gallery. Around the palace there's also a nice garden. It's considered to be Hesse's most beautiful Baroque palace that is opened to visitors.

Floravase at Fulda City Palace
Gardens and Fulda Orangery

 

Interior of St. Blasius Catholic Church

 

Wasserkuppe

Around Fulda the visitor can get to know the Hessian part of Rhön Mountains, Hessian Rhön Nature Park, part of Rhön Biosphere Reserve. This park with a size of 70 km² is a popular destination for hiking and to get in touch with nature. The hightest point in the nature park is Wasserkuppe (950 m high), also the hightest mountain of the Rhön, famous because of its huge gliding center with its airfield and a radar station made to observe eastern Germany and build during the Cold War. Close to it there's the 2nd largest marsh in the Rhön, Rotes Moor, that can be discovered with its paths to discover its flora and fauna or, in winter, by cross country skiers. The area has also some towns and villages that have its own personality and therefore, it can be interesting to visit them. One of them is Ebersburg (4,637 inhabitants), a town where finding the Ruins of Ebersburg Castle, remains of the ancestral castle of the Ebersberg family that offers a sweeping panoramic view of the Fuldaer Land and the Rhön.

Rotes Moor

Close to it there's Gersfeld (5,460 inhabitants), a recognized spa town (and Kneipp spa) that is a nice starting point for tours in the Hessian Rhön. Its main sightseeing points are its half-timbered houses located in its old town (close to Marktplatz) and Gersfeld Lutheran Church, a Baroque church from the 1780s with a pulpit altar extended by the organ is particularly worth seeing. Another of its nicest towns is Tann (4,405 inhabitants), a spa town at the Ulster River where getting to know more about the region on Rhön at the Rhön Museum (10-17 Tue-Sun from May to Nov; 2.50€/ 2€  adults/ reduced), located in a typical house from Rhön. The town has also the nice complex of palaces in the Renaissance and Baroque styles, Tann Palaces, that consists in three wings (the red, the blue and the yellow castles) that is the ancestral home of the von der Tann family (still privately owned to this day).

Hünfeld Monastery

Going north, in the way to Bad Hersfeld, there's Hünfeld (16,616 inhabitants), a town located jm far from Fulda. Here the visitor can stop at Konrad-Zuse Museum (15-17 Tue-Wed, Fri-Sun; 3€/ 1€  adults/ reduced), a museum that shows the history of the town and its district, having as a most importnat piece a calculating machine Z22 from 1958. Other things to do here are visiting St. Jakobus Catholic Church, a Gothic church from 1506 that used to have Baroque furnishings (removed and substitued by three Neo-Gothic altars), the eye-catching Hünfeld Town Hall and Hünfeld Monastery, a Neo-Romanesque complex was built in 1900 with the design of Arnold Güldenpfennig, has a precious cross relic (given to the monastery by the Landgrave and Prussian Princess Anna of Hesse). Today it's used as a guest house.

 

 

Where can I eat in Fulda?

The traditional dish in Fulda is the Flurgönder mit Nudeln (raw, smoked rind stomach cooked and served with ribbon noodles). The city has some cheap restaurants such as the Gasthof Drei Linden (Neuenberger Straße 37) or the Italian restaurant La Romantica (Pfandhausstraße 1), but also many medium-prized restaurants like, for example, the German restaurant Schwarzer Hahn (Friedrichstraße 18), the Gasthause Fuldaer Hof (Am Ried 13) and Breuers Restaurant und Weintube (Pfandhausstraße 9).

Posted in: Europe,Germany,Hesse