Last Weekend

I guess I'm a week behind. Last weekend we spent the day in Bamberg, Germany. It is a neat old German town. It dates back over 1200 years. It has a lot of religious history, at one point it was the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire. Another note is that the only Pope buried north of the Alps is buried in Bamberg, Pope Clemens II.

The city has two rivers that run through town. I took photos of the old Town Hall built by the people to reflect their presence to the Monarchy in 1386. The King refused to give the people any land to build a town hall, so they built up an island in the river and erected their town hall.

In 1000 the King and Queen of Bamberg were King Heinrich II and Queen Kunigunde. We were told a number of interesting stories about them, but I will post each one separate with photos. They were canonised in 1146 (Heinrich) and 1200 (Kunigunde).

Bamberg is known world wide for it's Nativity collections. There are over 25 churches in the small town. Each church sets up a nativity scene at the beginning of advent. Some set up the entire scene and others set up the scene has it relates to the church calendar. For example, last weekend some Nativity scenes only had Mary and Elizabeth greeting each other. Has the weeks unfold the churches will add more figures . They will continue this until the 3 Wisemen arrive.

The artwork is amazing. I'll post a separate blog about the art work as well. Long story.