municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen () is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the west of Bavaria, Germany with a population of 95,000. Neighbouring districts are (from the north clockwise) Ansbach, Roth, Eichstätt and Donau-Ries. It is located in the south of ...

Middle Franconia Middle Franconia (, ) is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia, Germany, in the west of Bavaria bordering the state of Baden-Württemberg. The administrative seat is Ansbach; the most populous and largest city is Nuremberg. Subdi ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

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 ...

Altmühl The Altmühl (, )
s.v. is a river in

valley. The local area is famous in

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

and

palaeontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geo ...

for

Solnhofen limestone The Solnhofen Limestone or Solnhofen Plattenkalk, formally known as the Altmühltal Formation, is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organi ...

. This is a very fine-grained

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

from the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

period

Lagerstätte A Fossil-Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that preserves an exceptionally high amount of palaeontological information. ''Konzentrat-Lagerstätten'' preserv ...

that preserves detailed fossil specimens.

Alois Senefelder Johann Alois Senefelder (6 November 177126 February 1834) was a German actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in the 1790s.Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998. p 146 Actor ...

used specially prepared blocks of the fine Solnhofen limestone for the process of

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

which he invented in 1798. The quarrying of this

lithographic limestone Lithographic limestone is hard limestone that is sufficiently fine-grained, homogeneous and defect-free to be used for lithography. Geologists use the term "lithographic texture" to refer to a grain size under 1/250 mm. The term "sublitho ...

subsequently yielded spectacular finds, including ''

Archaeopteryx ''Archaeopteryx'' (; ), sometimes referred to by its German name, "" ( ''Primeval Bird'') is a genus of bird-like dinosaurs. The name derives from the ancient Greek (''archaîos''), meaning "ancient", and (''ptéryx''), meaning "feather" ...

'', commemorated in the bird's full name ''Archaeopteryx lithographica''. All 13 known specimens have come from the Solnhofen area.

Geography

Solnhofen is located on the

Altmühl The Altmühl (, )
s.v. is a river in

in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. It contains two districts: Hochholz and Eßlingen. It is adjacent to the municipalities

Pappenheim Pappenheim is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, south of Weißenburg in Bayern. History Historically, Pappenheim was a statelet within the Holy Roman Empire. It was ...

, Langenaltheim, and

Mörnsheim Mörnsheim, or Moernsheim, is a municipality in the district of Eichstätt in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the river Gailach and the surrounding rocks date back to the Late Jurassic (Tithonian In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is t ...

.

History

Solnhofen was known as "Husen" in the eighth century. In 750/51

Saint Solus Saint Solus (also Sualo, Sola) (d. c. 790-794) was an English monk, in Germany with St. Boniface. Life Solus was from southern England. In 744, he went to the Monastery of Fulda where he was ordained priest by Saint Boniface, became a monk, and ...

created a church there. His grave church (Sola-Basilika) was later built on the site. In honor of him Husen was renamed "Solnhofen". In 1420 Solnhofen was burnt down during the Bavarian War. It also suffered through the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. From 1649 to the 18th century there was a glass industry in Solnhofen. In 1785 the St Veit church was erected partly on the ruins of the old grave church. In 1870 the train station was opened. From 1903 to 1905 the Catholic St Sola church was built. In 1970 the

Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum The Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum is a natural history museum in Solnhofen, Germany. In 1954 the mayor, Friedrich Mueller, made his private collection accessible to the public. In 1968 the museum was officially founded by the Solnhofen municipali ...

was opened.

Sights

The Sola Basilica dating from the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...

period is one of the finest architectural monuments in Germany. It is the grave church of

Saint Solus Saint Solus (also Sualo, Sola) (d. c. 790-794) was an English monk, in Germany with St. Boniface. Life Solus was from southern England. In 744, he went to the Monastery of Fulda where he was ordained priest by Saint Boniface, became a monk, and ...

. Close to it is the St Veit church that was built in 1785. As well as celebrating its role as the "hometown" of ''Archaeopteryx'', Solnhofen also commemorates the work of

Alois Senefelder Johann Alois Senefelder (6 November 177126 February 1834) was a German actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in the 1790s.Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998. p 146 Actor ...

with a statue of the inventor by The

Bürgermeister Müller Museum Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

in Solnhofen displays the history of lithography, the story of the limestone quarries, and the spectacular fossil finds from the area, including the most recently discovered ''Archaeopteryx'' specimen. The Catholic St Sola church, built in early Gothic style of Jurassic limestones, was opened in 1905.

Notable people

*

Richard Arauner Richard Arauner (19 April 1902 – 1 November 1936) was an ''Oberführer'' in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and agricultural functionary. Richard Arauner was born into an Evangelical quarry owner family and completed his farmer-diploma. In 1923 he j ...

(1902-1936), Oberführer in the Waffen-SS *

Hermann von Meyer Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer (3 September 1801 – 2 April 1869), known as Hermann von Meyer, was a German palaeontologist. He was awarded the 1858 Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. Life He was born in Frankfurt am ...

(1801-1869)

References

External links

*
Solnhofen fossils

Bürgermeister Müller Museum
{{Authority control Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen