Königsbronn

History

There is some evidence that the area was first populated in the Stone Age. The foundations of a castle of the early Middle Ages possibly erected around 1000 AD on the site of an even earlier castle, of robber-knights, as it is being told can be found on the rock Herwartstein overlooking the valley, which was allegedly destroyed by the son of the emperor of Holy Roman Empire of medieval Germany. Below, in the valley, a hamlet called "Springen" was formed. In 1303, a monastery was founded (and allegedly erected with stones from the destroyed castle) for Cistercian monks. It was to become one of the most influential and wealthiest monasteries in Southern Germany. The place was renamed "Königsbronn" which means "Kings's Spring". In 1552, the monastery and village that had grown next to it were destroyed and a year later the area became Protestant (Lutheran). When the village was supposed to turn catholic again in 1629, the population rebelled and stayed Protestant. The monastery had been a centre of pre-industrial-age metallurgy and in 1366 had been granted the right to mine and process iron ore from Emperor Charles IV., only one year after he had given it erroneously to a local count. The monks then started what became later the industrial company with the longest historic tradition in Germany, the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke GmbH. 1651 a furnace was lit and smelting didn't stop until 1908, when it had ceased to be profitable. However, the business was successfully shifted to finished products, especially to calender rolls for the paper industry, which made Königsbronn and SHW famous. Two out of three state of the art calender rolls in modern paper machines worldwide have been poured in the Königsbronn foundry, which today is a part of SHW Casting Technologies GmbH, a…

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,121
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,994
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,914
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,554
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,321
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,302
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,277
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

  Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,147

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2022-10-16
  Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
• M 4 — 2022-07-09
  2 km NNE of Grosselfingen, Germany
• M 3.1 — 2008-12-25
  3 km NNW of Saulgau, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-12-12
  2 km ESE of Nehren, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2008-07-09
  1 km WSW of Dußlingen, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-07-03
  2 km W of Dußlingen, Germany