Side Trips in Bad Mergentheim

An Excursion to Stuppach

The agrarian village of Stuppach (pop. 500), located 11km (7 miles) southeast of Bad Mergentheim, is the site of one of the region's most important artistic treasures, the Stuppacher Madonna by Matthias Grünewald (ca. 1475-1528). This dark, brooding work is diametrically opposed to the lighter motifs of such contemporaneous artists as Dürer. It's the artistic centerpiece of the village's only church, the Fahrkirche Maria Krönung, Kirchplatz (tel. 07931/2605), which can be visited, without charge, in winter daily from 10am to 3pm and in summer daily from 10am to 5:30pm (closed Jan).