Zähringertag on the grounds of the Landesgartenschau in Neuchâtel / exhibition in the Neuchâtel town hall until September.
Neuenburg am Rhein, along with eleven other towns in south-west Germany and north-western Switzerland, belongs to the Zähringer towns. With a Zähringer Day, the State Horticultural Show focused on this unique constellation with its deep historical roots.
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The city of Freiburg had already presented itself as a Zähringer city with its own theme day entitled “de Freiburg Flow” on May 15th on the grounds of the state garden show in Neuchâtel. While the city of Weilheim an der Teck had furnished the Zähringer garden specially created for this topic on the garden show grounds with comfortable deckchairs in the Zähringer colors yellow and red, the city of Thun presented itself last Saturday with a small delegation and its own stand as the only other Zähringer city live the audience.
Thun, just under a two-hour drive from Neuchâtel, has a lot to offer in addition to a dream location on Lake Thun with a view of the Bernese Alps. For example, a large castle that was built around 1200 by the Zähringen family and, in contrast to their ancestral castle north of Freiburg, towers over the city unscathed.
Yvonne Wirth, director of the castle museum, personally informed visitors to the garden show about Thun Castle and its builders. There was a painting and handicraft corner for children at the Thuner stand. There they could, among other things, make a magnificent crown. The people of Thun praised the garden show on the Rhine: There was a good response and everything was designed to be very family-friendly, said Yvonne Wirth.
The Zähringer theme can be deepened in the Zähringer garden if you take a closer look at its floor plan: In the middle is a “market place” with a fountain, the twelve red and yellow flower beds stand for the twelve Zähringer towns. They were founded during the 150 or so years in which the Zähringer family played an important role in world politics. Neuenburg am Rhein around 1175 by Berthold IV von Zähringen, who wanted to secure the Rhine crossing with this foundation. An interactive stele lets the various Alemannic dialects of the Zähringer towns ring out with audio recordings.
What the Zähringen never managed to create was a contiguous territory that would have strengthened their power. The efforts came to nothing at the latest in 1218 with the death of the last Zähringer Berthold V. On the other hand, the ideal networking of the Zähringer towns is livelier today than ever. A comprehensive exhibition about the Zähringer family and their time was last shown in Freiburg in 1986. Now the Alemannic Institute Freiburg, the Freiburg City Archives and the Albert-Ludwig-University Freiburg, with the support of the Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau, have started to look for clues again. This resulted in a traveling exhibition entitled “The Zähringer. Myth and Reality”, which has been touring through the Zähringer towns since December 2018. Now she can be seen in the Neuchâtel town hall.
The exhibition in Neuchâtel town hall: “The Zähringers. Myth and Reality” runs until September 25th. Opening times: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The Zähringer towns
The twelve Zähringer towns are: Bern, Bräunlingen, Burgdorf, Freiburg im Breisgau, Friborg im Üechtland, Murten, Neuenburg am Rhein, Rheinfelden, St. Peter in the Black Forest, Thun, Villingen-Schwenningen and Weilheim an der Teck.
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