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Station 6: Bad Leonfelden

Monks should approach one another with mutual respect - Rule of Saint Benedict

 

Meditation text to listen to

 

 

Meditation text for the journey 

to Hohenfurth/Vyšší Brod

What are the joys and the burdens of living in a community? 

What do I contribute to my community? 

How do other people support me?

 

In the forecourt of Bründlkirche Church in Bad Leonfelden, and along the path ahead, I observe the trees. Some stand alone, upright, spreading out in abundance, their forms clearly defined, yet exposed to the elements. Others grow close together, almost intertwined, either supporting each other or hindering each other's development. I think of this, and I make a connection between the trees and my own relationships.

This place has seen many people pass through, and not all of them were peaceful spa guests. Bad Leonfelden was repeatedly ravaged and set on fire by marauding troops throughout history. The parish church, which has been rebuilt time and again, bears witness to this. The remains of a ‘Swedish fortification’ in the Rading district bear witness to the distant, uninvited guests during the Thirty Years' War. People barricaded themselves behind these fortifications with their livestock and children. But merchants also passed through, trading in salt and fish. The ‘Iron Hand’, a two-metre-high stone column that used to be topped with an iron hand on market days, has marked a fork in the important salt road since the 9th century. During the Soviet era, the town was located close to the border with Czechoslovakia. From the local mountain, the Sternstein, you can see far into both local and foreign territory from a lookout point. Those who were expelled from across the border at the end of the Second World War as Germans chose the Maria Schutz am Bründl church as their memorial site. The Bürgerspital with its hospital church is older. However, the building with its remarkable 16th-century frescoes has been used for other purposes for 200 years, currently as a cultural hall. Bad Leonfelden is also of European significance. In the district of Oberlaimbach, a granite stone marks the European main watershed. To the south, everything flows into the Black Sea, to the north into the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to refresh your memories, the town's school museum is the place to go. Don't miss a visit to the Kastner gingerbread bakery.