Arnstein Travel Guide

Statue
[ source: Wikipedia]

Arnstein Overview

Arnstein is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany. The town lies on the banks of the river Wern and is roughly 20 km from Schweinfurt (Schweinfurt vacation rentals | Schweinfurt travel guide) and 25 km from Würzburg (Würzburg vacation rentals | Würzburg travel guide).

Things to See

• The Late Gothic parish and pilgrimage church of Maria Sondheim was already Arnstein’s parish church at the time when Sondheim was founded. During the time when Arnstein was pledged to the Lords of Hutten, it served the noble family as a family gravesite.
• The Town Hall was built about 1550 on the site of an older, Gothic building, and in 1754 it was renovated. In 1945, it burnt down to the foundation, but after the War was built once again in its old form.
• The Pfründnerspital is an historic building built in 1555 at the behest of Moritz von Hutten.
• The Balleshaus was built in 1725 by the clothier Georg Roth and served for more than two hundred years as a residential house. The town acquired it from its last owners, the family Balles, and renovated it. Ever since, it has housed the town library and archive.

In Arnstein’s new residential area has stood since the late 1990s a terraced housing development with 20 low-energy houses, the so-called Arnsteiner Sonnenhäuser (“Sunhouses”). Part of the energy supply comes from a solar collector area of more than 210 m² through which water is heated and household heating is provided. Furthermore, 95% of the space heat can be recovered through a controlled ventilation system. By using rainwater to flush the toilets, choosing ecologically friendly building materials, forgoing a basement and thus insulating the houses and taking other measures, further energy-saving and environmentally protective measures could be realized. The “Sunhouses” were built collaboratively by the 20 builders in the framework of the promotional programme for experimental home building, thereby reducing acquisition and planning costs.

Not far outside Arnstein, on Bundesstraße 26a going towards Schwebenried, stands the Schnittpunktdenkmal, or “Crossing Point Monument”. It marks the spot where the 50th parallel of north latitude crosses the 10th meridian of east longitude: 50°N 10°E?

[ source: Wikipedia ]