The best road cycling routes around Mietingen

Super nice to drive.

Next to the church there is an ice cream café with delicious ice cream!

The asphalted road from Schönebürg to Mietingen runs along the Rottum and is easy to navigate.

Who knows that the Weihung is now a tributary of the Danube? Some time ago it still "flowed" into the Iller.

Nice tour

Evangelical St. Michael's Church (2): "The plaque depicts the procession of Carinthians with many children, together with Abraham and his family," explains the historically knowledgeable pastor. It is a story of departure, and the newcomers named the district "Bethlehem". (https://oberschwaben-welt.de/wain-und-die-erinnerung-an-bethlehem/)

Evangelical St. Michael's Church (1): "In the middle of the village of Wain there is probably the oldest Protestant church in Upper Swabia," says Pastor Ernst Eyrich. St. Michael's Church was built in 1687. In the Middle Ages, a smaller Gothic church stood on the site. As many Protestant religious refugees from Austria came to Wain in 1650, the congregation grew in a short time. The church was dismantled except for a section of wall and rebuilt and enlarged. This old section of wall is now part of the northern nave wall. The Protestants had to flee from Carinthia and Styria at that time. According to Pastor Eyrich, there are many special features in the church that focus particularly on the topic of baptism. The chancel is built as half an octagonal honeycomb. If this octagon were built, it would be imaginarily mirrored to form a whole honeycomb, and the baptismal font would form the exact center. The number eight can be interpreted in different ways. "The eighth day is the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. With the resurrection the new creation of the world begins, a radical change - something new begins from the old," explains Pastor Eyrich. "In the past it was actually considered a scandal if a baptismal font was placed in the middle of the chancel," he adds. Baptismal fonts are usually located to the side or in a corner. In the past, an unbaptized person was not allowed to enter the chancel. The baptismal font in St. Michael's Church stands between the altar and the congregation and is an elegant work of art made of marble on a baluster base. The carved wooden lid is lavishly decorated with fruit ornaments and the initials of the donors. This elaborate lid can be pulled up using a pendulum pull. The pulpit is made of walnut and also features lavish carved fruit arrangements. Opposite the pulpit is the count's family box. On the south side of the nave there is an exile plaque. Exiles were Protestant religious refugees from the 16th to 18th centuries who were driven from their homeland. In the 17th century, many Protestant families from Arriach in Carinthia and from Styria came to Wain, the “promised land” that the free imperial city of Ulm made available to the refugees in 1650. (https://oberschwaben-welt.de/wain-und-die-erinnerung-an-bethlehem/)

Exiles in Wain (4): The most famous descendant of the Carinthian exiles is probably Conrad Dietrich Haßler, whose ancestor Pankratius Haßler appears in the baptismal registers since 1659 as a resident, shoemaker, day laborer and mercenary. Conrad Dietrich Haßler was a professor at the grammar school in Ulm, as a member of the Stuttgart state parliament he advocated the expansion of the railway line to Ulm, was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848 and, in addition to everything else, worked tirelessly for the continuation of the construction of the tower of the cathedral in his home town, which had been unfinished since the Middle Ages. Today, numerous descendants of the former exiles still live in Wain and Balzheim, and some of their names have also been preserved, e.g. Walcher, Schließer, Unterweger, Wipfler and Neuhauser. The "Lutheran sausages" are also well known, the recipe for which the Carinthians once brought with them. The town's own history is regularly commemorated in events lasting several days, commemorative publications and plays. The "Exulantentafel" in Wain's Michaelskirche, which depicts Abraham's exodus from Haran to Canaan and was donated by the Ulm city council in 1658, is always present. The newly created Wain village fountain also commemorates this chapter of its own history. Since 1972, Wain has had an official partnership with the Carinthian mountain farming community of Arriach, the place of origin of many of the exiles. (c) Burckhard Pichon (retired senior teacher): https://stadtarchiv.ulm.de/stadtarchiv/haus-der-stadtgeschichte-stadtarchiv-ulm/ulmer-geschichte-im-netz/migration/17-jahrhundert/exulanten-wain