Bavaria is a country full of superlatives. Here you will find impressive, astonishing and sometimes even strange records and peculiarities of the Free State of Bavaria and its inhabitants.
- The largest technical museum: The Deutsches Museum was built between 1906 and 1925, during the governing period of Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria. It is the first, largest and most important museum in the world to be solely dedicated to the world of technology and science.
Deutsches Museum – Museumsinsel 1 – 80538 Munich – Tel: +49 (0) 89 21 79 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The largest roof: The transparent acrylic glass pavilion roof of Munich Olympic Stadium measures some 85,000 m² and, as such, is the largest glass roof in the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The largest solar power station: The largest solar power station in Germany is situated in Bavaria. The 1.6 megawatt strong plant is located in the district of Hohenfels near Regensburg. After a construction period lasting just three months, 12,672 solar modules were installed, covering a total area of around 14,500 m². Each year, some 1.56 million kilowatt hours of environmentally friendly electricity generated by the sun is fed into the national grid.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The largest public festival: Each year since 12th October 1810, the largest and most famous public festival in the world (Octoberfest) takes place on the Theresienwiese in Munich. The first festival was organised to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.
Today, over 6 million visitors travel to the Wies'n each year from across the globe.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The oldest town: The town of Kempten, situated in the Allgäu, is the oldest town in Germany.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The first Renaissance building: Built between 1509 and 1518, the Fugger church in Augsburg stands as the first Renaissance building to be built in Germany.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The oldest church: Built in 706, the Marienkapelle at Marienberg Castle, which stands over the town of Würzburg, is the oldest church on German soil.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The first and last large constructions from the Gothic period: St Lorenzo in Nuremberg was the first large Gothic church to be built in Germany; whilst the Frauenkirche in Munich was the last.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The largest cathedral organ in the world in Passau's Stephansdom: With 17974 pipes and 233 registers, the organ is their Passau in St. Stephen Catholic Church as the largest organ in the world. For visitors from all over the world, the cathedral organ is a "must" stay in the City of Three Rivers. Of 2 May to October lasts the season of organ concerts. Every day at 12.00 clock and every Thursday at 19.30 clock they take place.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The most historic monuments: Besides Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria is home to the most historic monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is also home to thousands of archaeological sites. Since 1973, a modern monument protection law in the Free State of Bavaria has ensured that these monuments have been preserved. One focus is on the preservation of the townscapes; the historical squares and streets, both in towns and in rural areas.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The oldest preserved stone bridge: Regensburg, the best-preserved medieval city in Germany, is home to the oldest preserved stone bridge in Germany. It was built between 1135 and 1146.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The highest concentration of breweries: 40 % of all the EU's breweries are situated in Bavaria.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The highest production of beer: Just under 23 million hectolitres of beer was produced by Bavarian brewers in 2000. This means that, after North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria is the state that produces the most beer, and it has just two-thirds of North Rhine Westphalia's population.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The highest consumption of beer pro capita: Bavaria has a pro capita beer consumption that is approximately 40 % above the national average.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - A unique range of beers: In 2000, there were 667 different breweries in operation in Bavaria, producing some 40 different types of beer with around 4,000 different beer brands. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The oldest law relating to food and drink: "Allain Gersten, Hopffen uns Wasser sölle genommen und gepraucht werden." Use only barley, hops and water, decreed Wilhelm IV, Duke of Bavaria, in 1516, in what stands as the oldest law relating to food and drink in the world. The "Bavarian Reinheitsgebot" or purity law remains the basic law for the Bavarian brewers, now renowned throughout the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The largest beer museum: Founded in 1994, the special museum entitled "rund um's Bier" is situated in a historical wing of the monastic grange in Kulmbach. Visitors are presented with topics including "Beer culture through the years", "Beer advertising", "Brewery architecture" and "Beer as a product" across an area spanning some 3,000 m². You can find out how the Egyptians, Romans and Celts brewed beer, how beer was prepared in the Middle Ages, how industrialisation revolutionised the brewing culture and how, despite the computer technology of today, brewing good beer remains a highly manual skill, as demonstrated in the museum's own small brewery.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The oldest brewery: The Benedictine monastery of Weihenstephan near Munich is the oldest commercial brewery in the world. It acquired its first brewing and bar licence back in 1040.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The smallest brewery: The world's smallest brewery was set-up by a coppersmith in the 1950s. It is a fully operational brewery in puppet size. It has an output of 500 millilitres of beer. The impressive sight can be viewed in the Brauer- und Büttnermuseum in Weißenbrunn (near Kulmbach). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The largest hops-growing region: The world's largest continuous hops-growing region in the world is situated in the Hallertau (Upper and Lower Bavaria). Almost 500,000 centners of hops are picked here between the end of August and mid-September each year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Yodelling record: On 9th February 1992, Thomas Scholl from Munich yodelled 22 notes in 1 second.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The most Bavarian "sport": Finger wrestling:Folk sport in the Bavarian Forest: The opponents sit across a table from one another; the middle fingers both placed within a small, extremely tear-resistant, leather band. The second hand cannot be used to help. When the command is given, both fingers begin to pull. With full force: it is, you could say, arm-wrestling with fingers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The funniest traditions: Climbing the May Pole: Once the May Pole has been erected, courageous men from the local area attempt to climb it. Acrobatics up high, climbing competitions and future May Pole events included
www.bayerwald.net
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The most unusual folk dance: Schuhplattln: The Plattler is a traditional Bavarian dance that is danced by several groups of dance partners. The so-called Landler is played for the dance. The Schuhplattln is distinguished by the alternate clapping of the thigh, the soles of the Haferlschuhe (traditional Bavarian shoes) and the hands.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The smallest dinosaur: The smallest dinosaur on earth – the dwarf dinosaur Compsognathus – existed in Bavaria. It was discovered back in 1858 in Jachenau, Riedenburg. The creature lived around 150 million years ago in the Jurassic period and, with a total length of just 65 centimetres, was the same size as a domestic cat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The oldest hash pipe: Archaeologists found an item measuring almost 4 cm in height and with a diameter of 4.5 cm in Bad Abbach-Heidfeld (in the Kehlheim district). An inclined suction pipe with an interior diameter of 2 mm is attached to the object. According to prehistoric expert Michael Rind from Kehlheim, this object could be the oldest hash pipe in the world. Around 3,500 years ago, people from the Bronze Age barrow culture may have smoked hemp or opium in pipes with clay tops and wooden suction pipes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The largest collection of pewter figures: Founded in 1929, the Pewter Figures Museum, with over 300,000 individual figures, is home to the largest collection of pewter figures in the world. Every odd year, the German pewter figure exchange takes place in Kulmbach from the second Friday to the second Sunday in August. Casting demonstrations also take place during the summer months on Thursdays between 2 and 5 pm.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The first colossal statue: Ludwig I commissioned the building of the Ruhmeshalle on the Theresienwiese (1843-53) with the statue of Bavaria as a memorial site for "brilliant Bavaria". Measuring 18.5 metres high (or 27.4 m including the pedestal), the Bavaria statue, which was unveiled in 1850, was the first colossal statue in European art history to be built since the antiquity, followed by New York's Statue of Liberty, which was itself unveiled in 1886.
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