"Wer dich, o Goswinstein erbaut, verbrauchte manch Pfund Heller" (The one who built you, Goswinstein, spent many a heller) wrote Victor von Scheffel - for whom, as a poet of the Franconian Switzera, the people of Gößweinstein in 1933 erected a monument, which is placed next to our hotel.
The view and image of Gößweinstein is shaped by the fortress, edified by Count Goswin in the 11th century.
Sitting enthroned on a scarp, plunging on three sides, above the valley of the Wisent with its crenellated tower, it
resembles the subject of the fortress for "The Parsifal" by Richard Wagner.
It´s romantic, the first view to the castle when approaching the town. But the real centre of the town is the basilica, constructed by Balthasar Neumann 1729-1743. This huge solemn and renovated baroque construction, whose miraculous image is the "Heiligste Dreifaltigkeit", every year attracts the pilgrimage with a number of adherents of ca. 100.000 pilgrims. As early as in the 15th century the miraculous image had the reputation of thaumaturgy. A Franciscan monastery is joint to the church.
Thus Gößweinstein early on became a market place and place of trade. Mid-20th-century it evolved into a recreation and climatic health resort and into the first tourist centre of the Franconian Switzera. With its wide offer of cuisine, tradition and leisure possibilities the town offers a central and animated starting point for his vacation to every visitor.
Gößweinstein
Scheffel monument
... a view on the castle and the basilica
Interior basilica