Ochsenthal
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Ochsenthal, precious jewel |
This is a good place for walking or hiking. This is the end of the access road from Morlesau. There
is a paved way along the crest of the hills to Diebach or, via
Untereschenbach, to the B 27 road and on to Hammelburg.
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Ochsenthal
– Hamlet
Royal District Court,
Regional Office 8
Fiscal District of
Hammelburg.
Kissingen
Chief Registration Office.
This is the
legend on the old wooden signpost in
Hammelburg’s smallest district.
* * *
O C
H S E N T H A L
and Its
History
The Picturesque
Village of Twelve.
From
the book by Father Dominik Lutz
Legend
has it that this is the place a father and
his
twelve sons found to live in.
Each
of the twelve sons learned a trade,
thus
making sure that the community remained
independent.
This
is why Ochsenthal is said to have been called
“The Village of Twelve.”
”OSSENTHAL“ is mentioned in a document for the first time in 1320.
The
pretty little
church of St. Ottilia is much older. The massive Romanesque tower is
indicative
of an old fortified church. Recent studies and newly discovered
frescoes point
to the village church having been built in the period before 1300. Ochsenthal has the oldest dated bell in
the former district of Hammelburg. It bears the inscription,
“ANNO DM MCCCCLXXV,“ i.
e. anno domini 1475.
Another precious item is the wooden
statue of Mary with child, a piece dating from the early Baroque period.
A special object of value in the Ochsenthal church is the oldest organ
preserved in its original state. It was restored in 2004.
Before there was a police station responsible for Ochsenthal, police
duties and
rights were passed from house to house at weekly intervals. The outward
symbol
of this office was the village pike made in 1842 at the expense of 1 gulden 35 kreuzer.
The
Freiherrn von Thüngen,
the university of Würzburg, and the Juliusspital shared the rule
over the
village. Forestry, farming, and
wine growing were the main scources of income of the twelve inhabitants
of the
village. In 1890, when the population had grown to eighty, they even
built a
village school.
The
hamlet of
Ochsenthal is situated 225 meters above sea level, which is half the
elevation
between Morlesau on the Franconian Saale and the Sodenberg, the
southernmost
volcanic extension of the Rhön. Ochsenthal was an independent
municipality. It became part of
Morlesau in 1968, and the major district reform of 1972 made it part of
the
town of Hammelburg.
Ochsenthal Today :
The
„Village of Twelve“ has grown.
New houses have been added,
not
all inhabitants make a living practicing a trade.
Some
still run their farms, there are a horse pension,
an
enclosure for fallow deer, some sheep farming,
beekeeping
as a leisure time activity,
and
there are holiday apartments.
* * *
As our
property in
Ochsenthal is located right at the foot of the Sodenberg, we named our
house
Haus am Sodenberg .
We
moved into the house, with its two holiday apartments, in 1997.
* * *
On
January 1, 1998, we made over the hotel and the restaurant in
Morlesau to our son Harald.
Between 1995 and 1999, Morlesau
and Ochsenthal restored their sewer system and streets. We like our
villages to
be spick and span.
The
region around the Sodenberg is now a protected nature area.