The best road cycling routes around Ederheim

Christgarten is a district of the municipality of Ederheim in the Donau-Ries district and was the smallest independent municipality in Bavaria until 1978. Its current special feature is the Carthusian church of St. Peter, whose preserved choir from the 14th century serves as a Protestant parish church. Next to the church, there are still remains of the chapter house and the lay brothers' house of the Carthusian monastery founded in 1383. The valuable Scheuffelin altar by Hans Schäufelin from around 1400 is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

The pilgrimage chapel Maria Buch is a historic place of pilgrimage in a wooded area above Neresheim on the Swabian Alb (Härtsfeld) and belongs to the Neresheim Abbey. The tradition dates back to the year 1663, when Abbot Meinrad Denich discovered an image of the Virgin Mary on a beech tree. A predecessor building erected in 1711 was burned down during the Napoleonic Wars (in 1796 by French troops). According to legend, the statue of the Virgin Mary remained intact, which led to its continued existence today. The chapel in its current neo-Gothic form was consecrated in 1889. The interior is designed in the Nazarene style by the Beuron Art School. It is a quiet place for reflection, a destination for pilgrims and hikers on the Härtsfeld, as well as a place for May devotions.

Kleinsortheim, Großsortheim…. And some other rather sleepy little towns are connected to each other here via good, but hilly side roads.

Again, something of a shame: two highlights on the same topic. The life-size sculpture, made of bronze, stands on a rectangular base plate, on which, next to the athlete, lies a football also made of bronze. Gerd Müller is dressed in a jersey of the German national football team.

Kloster Christgarten: The settlement of Christgarten has existed since Merovingian times. In the Middle Ages, it included a St. Peter's Chapel, last mentioned in 1692. Nearby, the Counts of Oettingen founded a monastery in 1383, which they handed over to the Carthusian Order. The monastery church was built around 1390. The monastery, which soon became very wealthy, was severely destroyed during the Thirty Years' War and dissolved in 1648. Today, only the monks' choir of the church remains, while the part for laypeople has been almost completely demolished. Little has survived of the monastery itself, apart from a hall-like room south of the choir, whose outer walls are still standing.

The pride of the football nation

The Berger Gate in Nördlingen is one of the five remaining city gates and once secured the road toward Ulm. It was built between 1435 and 1436 by the master builder Hans Rews. The upper tower floors were later expanded between 1574 and 1575 by Wolfgang and Caspar Waldberger, giving the gate its present appearance. Particularly noteworthy is the coffered barrel vault of the gate passage – an architectural detail that gives the gate its distinctive character. A cannonball from the Thirty Years' War remains embedded in the masonry, commemorating the siege of Nördlingen in 1634.

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