View allAll Photos Tagged Lechfeld!
Die Wallfahrtskirche Maria Hilf liegt am Rand des parkähnlichen Wallfahrtsplatzes in der Mitte des Ortes Klosterlechfeld im Landkreis Augsburg in Schwaben. Das 1984 aufwändig restaurierte Gotteshaus gilt als eine der bedeutendsten Sehenswürdigkeiten auf dem Lechfeld.
The battle of Lechfeld was a battle between German states and the Magyar barbarians.
Europe was under siege from Vikings to the North, Arabs to the south and Magyars to the east. The Magyars came to Europe possibly from the southern Russian steppes and settled in Hungary. However these horsemen started attacking various European kingdoms and were seen as unstoppable. Lechfled would completely change this notion.
The Magyars were ready to attack the Bavarian city of Augsburg where 45 years earlier a German army was defeated at "the Lechfeld" a stony plain by the lech river. The coalition of Germanic and Slavic forces was lead by King Otto I of Saxony who sought to defeat the barbarians once and for all.
The Magyars were waiting with their infantry in front while the cavalry were in back. Otto and his forces quickly devastated the less experienced infantry while the cavalry retreated.The battlefield was covered with both German and Magyar bodies showing the ferocity and hatred that both sides had for each other. The Magyar cavalry thought that the Germans would follow that way they could pick them off, but Otto was too wise to repeat the same mistake the Germans did 45 years ago. Instead the Germans decided to shut down all river crossings and hunt down the remaining Magyars in German territory. Angry farmers who have dealt with them for years tortured captured Magyars and Magyar leaders who were captured were later hung. Surviving Magyars would often have their ears and noses cut off as a warning.
7 years later Otto I would be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII for his achievement in stopping the Magyar raids.
What became of the Magyars though? They went back to Hungary and settled down abandoning their old savage ways and soon converted to Christianity.
Ulrich and Afra are the patron saints of the city of Augsburg. Ulrich was a local prince-bishop whos army saved the empire by turning back the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955; Afra was a Roman virgin martyr. Both their tombs are sheltered in the church.
The Late-Gothic basilica dedicated to Ulrich and Afra was built 1476-1500 on the site of a Roman temple.
The Peace of Augsburg was signed here in 1555, recognizing both Catholicism and Protestantism as valid denominations.
In the early 1700s, the monastic preaching hall on the north side of the basilica was renovated as the Lutheran Church of St. Ulrich, leaving the other section Catholic and dedicated to Afra.
The double church, half Catholic and half Protestant, makes a fitting tribute to the site where the Peace of Augsburg put an end to violent religious conflict.
Die älteste noch existierende Sozialsiedlung der Welt. Diese Reihenhaussiedlung wurde 1521 von Jakob Fugger dem Reichen gestiftet. Heute leben darin 150 bedürftige Augsburger Bürger. Der Mietzins hat sich in den letzten 500 Jahren nicht verändert. Jahresmiete: 0,88 Euro (Gegenwert eines rheinischen Guldens), täglich drei Vaterunser und ein Ave Maria für den Stifter beten und das Glaubensbekenntnis lesen.
The oldest existing social settlement in the world. This row houses are donated 1521 by Jakob Fugger the Rich. The rent has not changed in the last 500 years. Annual Rent: 0.88 Euro (equivalent of one Rhenish gulden), three daily Our Father and a Hail Mary for the founder and read the Creed.