Visiting Fulda

Come along with me on a walk through the city of Fulda. Last week we went to small cities along the way to Fulda: Gelnhausen and Steinau an der Strasse. All these cities are on the German Fairy Tale Route and on what’s called “die Hohe Strasse” or the High Road, earlier called the Via Reggia during Holy Roman Empire time.

We didn’t get this far last week, so today we returned just to Fulda. One of the reasons we wanted to visit here was because John & I both recently read the book “Pope Joan,” and traditions says she lived here for awhile. The book, by the way, is really good!

We spent the whole day, enjoying the sights–the palace, the Dom, the old churches, the monastery, parks and gardens. There are also several museums we didn’t have time for this trip.

I am always astounded that the homes built so long ago are so huge. Most are 4-5 storeys tall and house multiple families. In these bigger cities, you don’t often see a single family home with a yard. That doesn’t happen here.

I always enjoy looking at the interesting doors.

This was the main shopping boulevard.

The Christuskirche–the oldest and largest protestant church in Fulda built in the late 1800s.

Fancy hardware!

We didn’t go into the Schloss–it’s now used by the city for civic offices.

This is the monastery, and Kloster, also closed to the public. We did go into the beautiful church.

Here is the old City Hall building dating back to 1531:

Then we went to the beautiful Cathedral, considered the most significant baroque church in the state of Hesse. It was built between 1704 and 1712. Parts of a 9th century church are integrated into the newer building (crypts below). This church is also a place of pilgrimage and every year the German bishops meet here for their autumn conference.

Then back to the streets for some more wandering.

Here’s another of the old churches in Fulda, the New Church, built in 1451. It was not open today.

Behind the Cathedral is the very old Michaelskirch (St. Michael’s Church) above on the right. It’s one of the oldest churches in Germany, built between 819 and 822. It was our favorite place visited today. We waited about an hour to go in because 2 baptisms were being held here this afternoon.

The feeling in this church was simple, peaceful and solid and very very old. It was as if the stones were whispering to us, “Be still and know that I am God.” We loved it here.

Down under the ground level we went into old crypts from the original church.

Was Trägt Dich? What do you carry? “The pillars in the crypt bear the church. It is a sign for every Christian who supports the church as a community of believers.” We also bear one another’s burdens that they may be light. Be like these pillars. Love and support others!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering. Near this old church and the cathedral was a convent or cloister dating back to the 1600s.

The wise men have visited this place. We noticed that on many doors in Fulda, the dates are written on black tape.

More wandering:

This witches’ tower was built between 1150-65 by the city wall. In the later Middle Ages it was used as a women’s prison. There were about 270 victims of the witch hunt here.