Giant Cask

The Giant Cask or Giant Barrel (

cask in the world.^[1]

However, it is not used for the storage of wine, but houses a restaurant.

Location

The Giant Cask on St.-Michaels-Allee 1 is northeast of the old town in the water meadows of the

Ludwigshafen am Rhein–Kaiserslautern

) just to the north.

History

The barrel was built in 1934 by Bad Dürkheim

master cooper, Fritz Keller, using wood to fashion it into the standard shape using traditional methods, albeit oversized. To construct the cask nearly 200 spruce trees were felled in the Northern Black Forest, all about 40 metres high. One tree was needed for each of the 178 staves, each 15 metres long and 15 cm thick. In all, more than 200 m³ of wood was used.^[2]

With the completion of the Giant Cask in Dürkheim, it superseded by a long way the famous Heidelberg Tun which, with a length of 9 metres, a diameter of 7 metres and capacity of 221,726 litres, and was actually used to store wine, had previously been the largest cask in the world.^[3]

Description

The giant Dürkheim barrel bears the inscription Dürkheimer Riesenfaß in the old German script on the bottom of the barrel which faces east. The interior is a type of wine bar. It can take just under 430 guests on two levels (ground floor and gallery). Because of the number of visitors, in 1958 the wooden "tub" (Bütt) was added. This is an oversized tub, constructed in the same style as the Riesenfass and has space for about 120 guests. The bar is operated for most of the year in the Bütt; the barrel itself is only accessible to guests during the Wurstmarkt and for large groups by prior arrangement.^[3]

Pictures

Photographed from transportable observation tower "City Skyliner" on Wurstmarkt 2016
Inn in lower floor
Upper floor
Side view

References

^ Die Fassgeschichte Archived 2010-11-16 at the Wayback Machine at www.duerkheimer-fass.de. Retrieved 13 Jun 2014
^ Eva Klag-Ritz (1994-11-26), "Fritz, hör auf, du machst dich bankrott", Die Rheinpfalz, Bad Dürkheimer Zeitung (in German), no. 274, Ludwigshafen
^ ^a ^b Hannelore und Carsten Thüne. "Die Fassgeschichte". Archived from the original on 2010-11-16. Retrieved 2010-09-21.

Literature

Doris Aust (2009-08-15), "Ein "Spleen" wird zur Sensation", Die Rheinpfalz, Bad Dürkheimer Zeitung (in German), no. 182, Ludwigshafen, Thema am Samstag: Das Dürkheimer Fass feiert 75. Geburtstag
Theo Becker
(1995), "Das Dürkheimer Faß : Wahrzeichen der Weinstraße", Stimme der Pfalz (in German), vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 17–18
Eva Klag-Ritz (1994-11-26), ""Fritz, hör auf, du machst dich bankrott" : Die Geschichte und Geschichten um den Bau des Dürkheimer Fasses", Die Rheinpfalz, Bad Dürkheimer Zeitung (in German), no. 274, Ludwigshafen
Sven Wenzel (2009-08-15), "Dauerhaftigkeit – außen und innen : Seit 75 Jahren kommt in Bad Dürkheim kaum ein Besucher am "Fass" vorbei", Die Rheinpfalz, Bad Dürkheimer Zeitung (in German), no. 182, Ludwigshafen, Thema am Samstag: Das Dürkheimer Fass feiert 75. Geburtstag

External links

Dürkheimer Riesenfass
Media related to Dürkheimer Riesenfass at Wikimedia Commons

49°27′53″N 08°10′09″E / 49.46472°N 8.16917°E / 49.46472; 8.16917

[1] Die Fassgeschichte Archived 2010-11-16 at the Wayback Machine at www.duerkheimer-fass.de. Retrieved 13 Jun 2014

[rheinpfalz_1994-11-26-2] Eva Klag-Ritz (1994-11-26), "Fritz, hör auf, du machst dich bankrott", Die Rheinpfalz, Bad Dürkheimer Zeitung (in German), no. 274, Ludwigshafen

[fassgeschichte-3] Hannelore und Carsten Thüne. "Die Fassgeschichte". Archived from the original on 2010-11-16. Retrieved 2010-09-21.

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[2]

[3]