Linzgau is a historic region in Southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, in the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. It is located north of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

and south of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

valley.

Geography

The region is bounded by the shore of Lake Constance on the south, the Hegau region on the west, the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

-Danube watershed on the north, and the Schussen valley on the east. It reaches west as far as

Überlingen Überlingen (; ) is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the German-Swiss border, border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second-largest city in the Bodenseek ...

and north as far as Pfullendorf. The highest peak is Mt. Höchsten with a height of . While the lower parts on the lakeshore are part of the

Bodenseekreis Bodenseekreis ("Lake Constance district") is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the south-east of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west, clockwise) Konstanz, Sigmaringen and Ravensburg, and in Bavaria, Lindau district. ...

district, the upper lands belong to Sigmaringen district. Beside Pfullendorf and Überlingen, the region comprises the town of

Markdorf Markdorf () is a town in the Bodenseekreis district, in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is situated near Lake Constance, 10 km northwest of Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is ...

, Meersburg, the municipality of Salem and several smaller communities.

History

The name derives from a Celtic name ''Lentia'' for what is now known as the

Linzer Aach The Seefelder Aach is a river in the districts of Sigmaringen and Bodenseekreis, Tübingen region, southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is approximately 55 kilometres long and flows into Lake Constance. It has a catchment area of 279 k ...

river.

Prehistoric times

The best-known remains of prehistoric human habitation in the region are the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

pile dwellings on the shores of Lake Constance, of which some examples are reconstructed at

Unteruhldingen Unteruhldingen is a small village, part of the town of Uhldingen-Mühlhofen, on the northwestern shore of Lake Constance, Germany. It is home to the Pfahlbau Museum Unteruhldingen, Pfahlbauten, an open-air museum displaying reconstructions of Neoli ...

. Similar

structures have also been found in a peat bog near Ruhestetten in the municipality of

Wald __NOTOC__ Wald is the German word for forest. Surname * Wald (surname) Places Austria * Wald am Schoberpass, in Styria * Wald im Pinzgau, in Salzburger Land Germany * Wald, Baden-Württemberg * Wald, Upper Palatinate, in the district of Cham, ...

. From the late

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallst ...

on, the population can be regarded as

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

. Burial mounds have been discovered at Hödingen, Salem, and Stetten.

Roman times

From the first century BC to the third century AD, the area was part of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Roman settlements existed at Bambergen, Meersburg, and Mettenbuch in the municipality of Ostrach. After the Roman withdrawal beyond the Rhine, Germanic tribes settled in the area. The original Celtic name of the stream gave its name to an Alamannic tribe, the Lentienses mentioned in the fourth century AD by the Roman historian

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...

Middle Ages

As part of Alemannia, Linzgau was acquired by the

Frankish Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lomba ...

in the 6th century, becoming part of the

Duchy of Swabia The Duchy of Swabia (; ) was one of the five stem duchy, stem duchies of the medieval Kingdom of Germany, German Kingdom. It arose in the 10th century in the southwestern area that had been settled by Alemanni tribes in Late Antiquity. While th ...

in the 10th. In 1135, the counts of Heiligenberg received the county of Linzgau. From them, it passed to the Count of Werdenberg in 1277, and later to the Count of Fürstenberg in 1535. The area was then mostly called the ''County of Heiligenberg''.

Modern times

In the early 19th century, under the rule of Napoleon, the Linzgau was assigned to the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

, so the name became synonymous with the district of Überlingen. Today, the area encompasses the districts of

Bodensee Lake Constance (, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhei ...

and Sigmaringen.

Linzgau today

Today, the only official use for the term ''Linzgau'' is the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

. However, it is regaining popularity, as shown by the naming of the new shopping center in Pfullendorf the ''Linzgau-Center'' or the slogan of

: ''Heart of the Linzgau''. The regional tourist association also calls itself Bodensee-Linzgau Tourismus e.V.

Landscape

The southern part of the Linzgau lies on the banks of Lake Constance and has a milder climate, which lends itself to fruit orchards and vineyards. The landscape is rolling, but fairly flat, with occasional

drumlins A drumlin, from the Irish word ("little ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground ...

caused by deposits from the retreating Rhine Glacier in the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. The northern part (or upper Linzgau) has a more rugged climate and rises to as high as 833 m. It is characterized by glacial

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

s, with occasional

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s and small lakes, especially in the northeast. Agriculture is largely dedicated to grain. Most of the Linzgau is still rural, with the most heavily populated areas along the shores of Lake Constance. The largest cities are Überlingen, Pfullendorf, and Markdorf.

Transport

The national highways 31 and 33, which run from east to west along Lake Constance are the only major highways through the region. A car ferry runs from Meersburg across the arm of Lake Constance called the ''Überlinger See'' to connect with Constance.

References

''Based on the article in the German Wikipedia.''

External links

Web site of Bodensee-Linzgau Tourismus e.V.

{{Coord, 47, 48, N, 09, 10, E, type:landmark_region:DE-BW_source:dewiki, display=title Regions of Baden-Württemberg