After leaving Stein am Rhein in Switzerland, we started to make our way back to Germany through the luscious Swiss countryside. We drove to the Bodensee, or Lake Constance, bordering both Switzerland and Germany. The Rhine River starts in the Swiss Alps and then flows through Lake Constance.
This area is meaningful to me because in 1976, when I was 17 years old, I came to Germany for the first time as a summer exchange student with an organization called Youth For Understanding. I was placed with a family in the Konstanz area, in a town called Dettingen. We decided today to take some time to try to find the home where I stayed.
We drove along the southern Swiss side of the Bodensee. It was really fun to see more of this beautiful lake and resort area that I’d not seen years ago when I was on the German side. The lake lies between the two countries. There were fun lake front homes and farms all along the way. This is a really popular area in the summertime. We drove by apple orchards and vineyards and old farms as we approached the city of Konstanz, where we wanted to stop and take a quick look around.
On the map below, Dettingen, where I lived, is the village at the top left.
We found parking in the city center and walked to the main Cathedral called St. Stephan. I don’t remember ever exploring in Konstanz in 1976. I was by myself much of that summer, finding my own way around.
Churches in old city centers are like magnets for us. We are drawn to them. We visited 2 very old churches–St Stephan and then the main cathedral. Both impressive and old with beautiful art and wood carved sculptures.
Below you will enter the Main Cathedral.
From Wikipedia: The Holy Sepulchre was built in 940 on orders of Bishop Konrad (934 – 975) who was canonized in 1123.
In 1052, the cathedral collapsed. Its reconstruction took place under Bishop Rumold von Konstanz (1051 – 1069), with the eastern transept and three naves separated by 16 monoliths.
The next 300 years saw the construction of one tower, followed by the second, then a great fire destroyed one tower along with parts of the basilica as well as 96 other houses in the city. The south tower was completed in 1378.
From 1414 to 1418 the cathedral hosted the Council of Constance, the most important assembly of the Church during the Middle Ages, and the only one on German soil. Martin V, who had been elected Pope by the Conclave and thereby ending the schism dividing the Church, was enthroned in this Cathedral in 1417. (More history in Wikipedia.)
The wood carvings on the two doors of the main portal depict the life of Jesus in 20 stations. Above both doors, semi-circular reliefs show busts of St. Conrad (left) and Pelagius (right).
The wood carving in this church is spectacular.
A quilt-ish floor!
A window-washer outside the Cathedral:
The town looked interesting and left us wanting to see more, but we had to keep moving.
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 