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Small and modest, but ancient

 

In Buchenberg, a small district of Königsfeld, stands a tiny church that appears very modest from the outside. In fact, however, it is one of the oldest in the Black Forest. The Church of St. Nikolaus has existed there since the eleventh century. To marvel at, there are wall paintings inside, which are very old and date back to the fifteenth century. They were uncovered and restored during extensive renovation work in the fifties. The choir contains a sculpted coat of arms of the von Falkenstein family, which had connections to Buchenberg in the fifteenth century. Over time, the little church has survived several earthquakes and a lightning strike in the tower almost unscathed. There were several plans to enlarge it. However, hardly anything of it was put into practice until the already mentioned rebuilding in the twentieth century.

 

Next to the Church of St. Nikolaus there was a rectory. This was sold in the sixteenth century, after which an inn settled in it.

 

On the subject of churches, the Black Forest has to offer not only such tranquil places as Buchenberg, but also very large, imposing buildings such as the Freiburg Cathedral or the one of St. Blasien with its huge dome. Since the region consists of a Baden and a Swabian part, there were not infrequent points of friction between the Christian denominations from the Thirty Years' War onwards, with individual communities changing their allegiance to one territory several times over the years and thus having to convert to another denomination.

 

Several monasteries also developed early in the Black Forest. Among them, the most important is the monastery of Hirsau, whose prehistory goes back to the ninth century. In the eleventh century it was the largest monastery in the German-speaking area. It was not only the starting point of several other monastery foundations, but also of the "Hirsau Reform", through which already existing monastic communities were renewed.

 

Another peculiarity of the Black Forest is the so-called Longinus Cross. It is a crucifix with a hipped roof, as the local farms have, and with an image of Longinus on a horse. He was popular among the peasants of Baden as a patron saint, which could be a reason for his presence on the crosses, especially since he is usually depicted there in a Baden uniform.

 

But back to Königsfeld: the place is known mainly as a center of the Moravian Brethren community, which was founded in 1727 by Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf. On the territory of Baden-Württemberg, Königsfeld was the first settlement of the Brethren Community at the time of its earliest certification in 1806.

 

Königsfeld also has an Albert Schweitzer Museum in a house named after the famous doctor that he built there. Not far from Buchenberg is the idyllic Glasbach Valley, where a stream of the same name flows. What is interesting about this stream is that it is its most water-rich tributary until it flows into the young Neckar river.