Biberach an der Riss lies in hilly moraine country in Upper Swabia, on the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway. Now a considerable industrial town, it still preserves something of an old-world aspect.
The writer Christoph Martin Wieland, a native of Biberach, served as town clerk from 1760 to 1769.
The Federsee, to the north of Bad Buchau, is fringed by beds of reeds (nature reserve). The area is famed for the Stone Age remains found here that are now in the nearby Federsee Museum.
Address: Federseemuseum, D-88422 Bad Buchau, Germany
Hours:
April 1 to November 1: 10am-6pm
November 2 to March 31: 10am-4pm; Closed: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat
In Steinhausen, an outlying district of Bad Schussenried (5km/3mi northeast) is the pilgrimage church of SS Peter and Paul (by Dominikus Zimmermann, 1728-33), which has been called "the most beautiful village church in the world." Built on an oval ground-plan, it has a magnificent ceiling painting in the dome.
From Zwiefalten the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway runs east to Obermarchtal, situated above the Danube, with the extensive range of buildings of a house of Premonstratensian canons. The church has fine stucco decoration of the Wessobrunn school.
The church in Bad Buchau was originally Romanesque and was remodelled in the Baroque style between 1774 and 1776. It now serves as the town's parish church.
At Bad Schussenried the Swabian Poets' Highway (Schwäbische Dichterstrasse), coming from Biberach (15km/9mi northeast) intersects the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway. The most notable feature of the town is the Premonstratensian abbey (Baroque), with a fine church and a sumptuous library.
Address: Bad Schussenried Abbey, Neues Kloster Frau gallus Klosterhauf 1, D-88427 Bad Schussenried, Germany
The little medieval town of Bad Waldsee, on the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway near Biberach an der Riss, has a church (originally Gothic, remodelled in Baroque style in 1766) which belonged to a house of Augustinian canons (facade and high altar by Dominikus Zimmermann).
In the Wurzacher Ried, a protected area of marshland 20km/12.5mi southeast of Biberach, lies Bad Wurzach, a spa (mud baths) situated on the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway, with a Baroque palace built between 1723 and 1728.
Address: Bad Wurzach Tourist Office, Mühltorstrasse 3, D-88410 Bad Wurzach, Germany
In the quiet valley of the Rot, 5km/3mi north of Ochsenhausen, is the walled Cistercian monastery of Gutenzell, with a beautiful Baroque church by Dominikus Zimmermann.
Ochsenhausen Abbey, 15km/9mi east of Biberach on the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway, is a Benedictine house founded in 1093 and secularized in 1802. The conventual buildings (now occupied by a school) mainly date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The original church is richly decorated and furnished in Baroque style. The Library is now used for concerts.
Northwest of Bad Buchau on the Upper Swabian Baroque Highway is the little town of Riedlingen (pop. 9,000), 6km/4mi west of which is the old monastic house of Heiligkreuztal. It has beautiful Gothic tracery in its windows.
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Bad Buchau, Germany
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