Station: [1] Welcome
F: Hello and welcome to the district of Saale-Holzland...
M: ... more precisely, to the pottery town of Bürgel and its long history surrounding an age-old monastery...
F: ... its farming traditions...
M: ... and of course the famous Bürgel ceramics.
F: This audio tour, which covers some twenty stops, will guide you around the town of Bürgel and the district of Thalbürgel. It takes in the Thalbürgeler Zinsspeicher, once a storage facility for tithes paid in kind that now houses the museum of local history, as well as the former Benedictine abbey church, all the surviving Bürgel potteries and the town's historical monuments.
M: Bürgel monastery was founded in 1133. A settlement of the same name established by the monks was granted a town charter in 1234, making Bürgel one of Thuringia's oldest towns. The name harks back to the "Burgelin", a small castle that probably stood on Georgenberg hill, between the present-day districts of Bürgel and Thalbürgel.
F: After the monastery was disbanded during the Reformation and converted into a manor, farmers and artisans settled in the immediate vicinity. The new residents recycled the stone from the monastery complex to build their farmhouses and continued to develop the land for agriculture, a process started by the monks. The village of Thalbürgel evolved.
M: Bürgel and Thalbürgel eventually achieved national recognition thanks to the pottery trade. The first local potteries were probably set up in medieval times, but evidence of their growing importance only dates back to the 17th century, when a potters' guild was established in Bürgel.
F: Industrialisation came late to the town – and in stops and starts. Which explains why village structures and a simple lifestyle based on farming and the manual trades survived into the 20th century. The permanent exhibition at the Zinsspeicher, the monastery's old tithe barn, explores the world of earlier generations. Everyday objects and tools from the past two centuries bring history to life.
M: Our tour of Bürgel and Thalbürgel starts here. We hope you enjoy it!