Fladungen

Sister cities

• Nora Municipality

History

Fladungen first appears in a public record in 789 AD; the town was granted "Stadtrechte" (city rights) by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1335. From the 16th century onwards it was part of the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg; the town coat of arms still shows the figure of a bishop with a sword and crozier, symbolizing the Prince-Bishop's combination of religious and secular power. The region around Fladungen was religiously contested during the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation and the Thirty Years War, but ultimately the town became predominantly Catholic, and remains so today. Fladungen became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria after the Treaty of Paris in 1814. From the 18th to the mid-20th century, Fladungen was the primary market town for the Franconian Rhön, a relatively rural and underpopulated region whose economy was dominated by agriculture, sheep-herding and timber. During the Cold War, the border with East Germany ran through the hills around Fladungen, and the town was cut off from much of its traditional hinterland. (A portion of the old border fence has been preserved as a memorial in the Rhön-Biosphere park, a few kilometers north of the town.)

Most-observed species

• Great Green Bush Cricket

  Tettigonia viridissima (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  569
• Red Kite

  Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  514
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  511
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  497
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  447
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  436
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  432
• Meadow Brown

  Maniola jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  377

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2008-05-06
  3 km SSW of Völkershausen, Germany
• M 3 — 2006-10-25
  2 km E of Urbach, Germany
• M 2.6 — 2006-09-24
  2 km SE of Neustadt (Hessen), Germany
• M 3.2 — 2005-09-22
  2 km SSW of Völkershausen, Germany
• M 2.6 — 2002-05-24
  4 km WNW of Schernberg, Germany
• M 3.4 — 2001-07-02
  3 km E of Bad Bocklet, Germany