Greding is a town in the district of Roth

Roth (district)

Roth is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nürnberger Land, Neumarkt, Eichstätt, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen, Ansbach and Fürth, and the cities of Schwabach and Nuremberg....

, in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated 28 km southeast of Roth bei Nürnberg

Roth bei Nürnberg

Roth is a town in Bavaria, Germany, the capital of the district Roth. It is located about 25 km south of Nuremberg.-History:...

 and 32 km north of Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

.

Geography

Greding is located in the south-eastern corner of Middle Franconia

Middle Franconia

Middle Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is in the west of Bavaria and adjoins the state of Baden-Württemberg...

. The municipal area borders on two neighbouring Bavarian districts, Eichstätt

Eichstätt

Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...

 and Neumarkt

Neumarkt

-Places:Austria*Neumarkt am Wallersee, in Salzburg*Neumarkt an der Raab, in Burgenland*Neumarkt an der Ybbs, in Lower Austria*Neumarkt im Hausruckkreis, in the Hausruckviertel, Upper Austria*Neumarkt im Mühlkreis, in the Mühlviertel, Upper Austria...

, and also on the two regions of Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...

 and Upper Palatinate

Upper Palatinate

The Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...

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

Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

 on the A9 Autobahn (junction 57).

Greding stands on the river Schwarzach in the Altmühl

Altmühl

The Altmühl is a river in Bavaria, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Danube and is approximately 230 km in length.The source of the Altmühl is located close to the city of Ansbach. From here the river runs southeastwards as a narrow brook to enter the Altmühlsee north of Gunzenhausen...

 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

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.-History:* Origins of the castle and the town date back to the 10th century....

, Kinding and Thalmässing.

History

There are remains of animal jawbones and charcoal fires from early settlements dating from between 100000 BC and 6000 BC. Traces of a Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

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.

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
.

Rathaus

The old town hall stood in the Market Square until the Thirty Years War. In 1633 the building was burned down in an attempt to extort 1000 Reichsthaler

Reichsthaler

The Reichsthaler was a standard Thaler of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1566 by the Leipzig convention. It was also the name of a unit of account in northern Germany and of a silver coin issued by Prussia.-Reichsthaler coin:...

 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).

The Basilica of St. Martin

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

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 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

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

 figures of the Virgin Mary and St John

John the Apostle

John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...

 from around 1780. The apse ceiling is painted with images of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 enthroned and symbols of the Evangelists

Four Evangelists

In Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...

, and the 15th-century nave fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es depict St Martin

Martin of Tours

Martin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...

 astride a horse, dividing his cloak with a sword for a beggar. The church also contains a number of early renaissance paintings and sculptures.

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

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...

. 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.

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.

Museums

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

Transport

Greding is located near junction 57 on the A9 autobahn.

The town is served by several local and regional buses, and has direct bus connections to Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 and Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

.

A bus service links the town with Kinding (Altmühltal) railway station, which is on the Nuremberg-Munich high-speed rail line

Nuremberg-Munich high-speed rail line

The Nuremberg–Munich high-speed railway line is a German high-speed railway in length. It links the two largest cities in Bavaria, Nuremberg and Munich....

 which runs through the 7.7 km Euerwangtunnel.
The Greding railway station on the Roth-Greding rail line closed in 1972.