DID YOU KNOW?

Anyone who thinks that as a long-established West Palatinate already knows everything about our region will be surprised at the things that we have put together in our gallery.

WOODED

Almost half of the Western Palatinate is covered by forest.
The leader is the community of Waldleiningen with 94.8%.

HISTORICAL WATERWAYS

In the Palatinate Forest there are 1,000 wooge and drift streams – man-made waters.

A QUICK TRIP TO PARIS

It takes just 150 minutes for the ICE and TGV to reach Kaiserslautern-Paris.

VOLCANIC

The Donnersberg was formed 285 million years ago, when a magma bubble lifted the ground.

AMBITIONED

Until the 1970s, the plan existed to create a connection between the Rhine and Saar across the Western Palatinate with a Saar-Pfalz Canal.

EDUCATION PIONEER

In 1592 the Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken was the first in the world to introduce compulsory education.

BIODIVERSE

The Mehlinger Heide is one of the largest heath landscapes in southern Germany and was created on a former military training area.

HIGH OUT

In 2003, the first tree top walk in Germany was opened in the Palatinate Forest near Fischbach.

BLOSSOM SPLENDOR

45,000 rose bushes of 1,500 different varieties bloom in the Zweibrücker Rosengarten.

MAGNIFICENT RESIDENCE

Berwartstein Castle near Dahn is the only castle complex still inhabited today in the Palatinate.

BETWEEN GLAN AND ALSENZ

Many have emigrated to the “New World”. But who knows that in the north of our region the “Old World” lies.

WARM BLOODED

The state stud Zweibrücken has produced its own horse breed, the Zweibrücker Warmblood.

TABLE TENNIS WITH BRAINS

The trend sport Headis was invented in 2006 in Kaiserslautern.

BIG SHOES

The largest pair of shoes in the world is in the German Shoe Museum in Hauenstein – with the legendary shoe size 247.

WANT A JOYRIDE?

The route network of the Pfälzerwald Mountain Bike Park comprises 900 kilometers of signposted trails.

AMERICAN

About 50,000 Americans live around Ramstein Air Base – the largest American military airport outside the USA.

CLIMBING PARADISE

Around 400 rock massifs and rock faces can be climbed in the West Palatinate.

REDWOODS

Near Landstuhl there are redwoods with a height of around 45 meters and a trunk circumference of over 8 meters.

BIGGER THAN THE NEIGHBOR

The West Palatinate is about 3,000 km² in size. This makes it 500 km² larger than the neighboring Saarland.

ELOQUENT

The West Palatinate is considered the most English-speaking region in all of Germany.

MYSTERIOUS

In the Pfälzerwald there are 307 so-called “Rittersteine” (knight’s stones), which refer to places of historical and naturalistic importance.

LARGE GREEN

The Pfälzerwald is the largest contiguous forest area in Germany and part of the cross-border Unesco Biosphere Reserve Pfälzerwald-Nordvogesen.

INTERNATIONAL

People from around 140 nations live in the West Palatinate and have found a second home here.

KNOWLEDGE SITE

21 scientific and research institutions are represented with a location in the West Palatinate.

COLORFUL

The largest James Rizzi Gallery in Germany is located in Pirmasens. Its Rizzi glass facade is unique in the world.

NOT INAUDIBLE

In May 1869 a meteorite hit Krähenberg with a bang audible as far as Wiesbaden. It is over 15 kg heavy.

HOP AND MALT

In 1850 there were still about 25 breweries in Kaiserslautern.

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY

The river “Lauter” exists twice in the West Palatinate: The so-called Waldlauter (originates in Kaiserslautern) and the Wieslauter (originates near Merzalben).

WELCOME BACK

Thanks to an EU resettlement project, lynxes have again been at home in the Palatinate Forest since 2016.

HISTORICAL RAILS

The route of the Orient-Express, known from books and films, ran through the West Palatinate.

COME A LONG WAY

In 1917, the Palatinate travelling musician Georg Drumm composed one of the ceremonial marches of the White House.

AWARDED

The Dahner Felsenland is the fifth premium hiking region since the beginning of 2019 in Germany.

MASSIVE

The abbey church in Otterberg is the largest church in the Palatinate after Speyer Cathedral.

IDYLLIC

The Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern is the largest of its kind in Europe.

PAST DAYS

The ruins of Hohenecken Castle are considered to be one of the most worth seeing castles of the Staufer period.

FOLLOWING THE AMERICAN EXAMPLE

In reference to California’s Silicon Valley, the IT location Kaiserslautern is often referred to as the “Silicon Woods”.

INVENTORY

The inventor Wilhelm Bauer tinkered with Germany’s first submarines in Zweibrücken.

OLD ROYAL COURT

The city of Kaiserslautern was first mentioned around the year 830 as “Villa Luthra”.

SPORTY

The Rhönrad was invented by a man from the West Palatinate.

RESCUER IN NEED

The Pirmasens-based company Convar specializes in data recovery and already recovered data media from the rubble of the World Trade Center in 2001.

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