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Tucson Daily Citizen from Tucson, Arizona • Page 20

Location:
Tucson, Arizona
Issue Date:
Page:
20
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

By FLORENCE MILLS Birthplace Of The Pancake IN MEDIEVAL SELIGENSTADT SELIGENSTADT, West Germany The origins of the pancake are a little obscure but legend has it that they were being tossed in Seligenstadt by a princess way back in the middle of the 8th century A.D. maybe on a Shrove Tuesday at that! The pancake was really hot news when Seligenstadt, a small medieval town just a few miles out of Frankfurt, was founded as a settlement of the Roman Empire in the days of Emperor Charlemagne. Legend has it that Charlemagne himself gave the city its present name (translated it means Blessed City), thanks to the culinary prowess of what must have been the original Aunt Jemima. According to legend, a young man named Einhard fell in love with Imma, one of the Emperor's daughters. Charlemagne opposed the marriage so Einhard eloped with the beautiful Irnma and settled in the area then known as Ober-Muehlheim.

Some time later Charlemagne was hunting and became lost in the forest. He took shelter in the first house he could find, which, naturally, was the residence of Einhard and Imma. The Emperor did not recognize his daughter but when Imma prepared her father's favorite dish, pancakes, Charlemagne immediately realized he had found his missing daughter because no one else could make pancakes the way Imma made them. In great joy Charlemagne cried, "Blessed be the name of the city where I have found my daughter." And, as in all good legends Charlemagne forgave Einhard and Imma and the couple lived happily ever after in "Seligenstadt." The memory of Einhard, who finally became adviser, friend and biographer of the great Charlemagne, still lives in Seligenstadt. To this day there is a magnificent basilica built on his orders--the only example of a so-called Roman basilica minor left north of the Alps.

The triple-towered edifice, standing on the banks of the Main River, can be seen from most of the narrow medieval streets that form the center of the old town. It has a magnificent 60-foot-high altar hewn out of black and white marble and bouses the remains not only of Einhard but also the patron saints of Seligenstadt--Marcellus and Petrus. The a i of the townsfolk believe fervently that Marcellus and Petrus A SUNNY VACATION In Hawaii PLUS A PACIFIC CRUISE Now CM mjoy an Hawaiian ReMrt Holiday and an exettftnc vacation afloat for taw tfcan you Winii pay for Hawaiian vacation alone! Fly to the Uaadc from the West Ml week at a famous WaUciki hotel Mi ervfee for days OB MaUM liner to California- for lest AM (he tame weeks ipcnt in Hawaii C. Gloria Paul iMbelte B. Harris PAUl-HAltlS TIAVEL SERVICE S.

4-tW Available) New $75,000 Twin En 'Baron Start Your Simmer, Travel Plan HOTELS, HESOKTS CRUISES. AIRLINES SEUSFOR: EUROPE ORIENT MEXICO HAWAII GEORGE HALL TRAVEL AGENCY 8 E. Pennhifton MA 24Mt FABULOUS, FRIVOLOUS FEMALES that's The Girls in the TUCSON DAILY CITIZEN act as saviours for the city in time of war and ravages. While nearby communities were destroyed in the Thirty Years War of the 17th century, Selingstadt was spared. During World War II, when communities only two or three miles away were demolished by air raids, not one building in Seligenstadt was hit by bombs.

So every year on June 2 there is a huge pilgrimage from surrounding a a with thousands of believers paying tribute to Marcellus and Petrus. Most of the wooden- beamed houses in the town date back to the Middle Ages. The entire old section has a wonderful romantic flavor, unspoiled by the hustle and bustle of city life. Highlight of the year is the Fasching (Carnival) season celebrated the last few weeks before Ash Wednesday. Like Mardi Gras its climax is on Rose Monday and Shrove Tuesday when people pour out onto the streets in their pyjamas to participate in the mad merrymaking.

Seligenstadt's Fasching parades, lasting five to six hours, are so full of color and pageantry that they frequently are televised over the national German network. American tourists looking for a genuine piece of old Europe will certainly find it here, yet it is only this year that city fathers have started to consider tourism seriously. They are opening a Tourist Office. a landing at Frankfurt's busy a i thus have a marvellous opportunity to take a short side trip as a start to their European tour. If you wish to drive the 16 miles from Frankfurt to Seligenstadt you can rent a car quite easily.

After a short drive through the modern "outer" town (meaning that the houses aren't more than 200 years old), you are suddenly transported a into the Middle Ages. You can park your car at the ages old Marktplatz, the market square, and start exploring the historic inns, the City Hall and an honest- blacksmith shop run by the same family for hundreds of years. The shop has shod horses since the days of Christopher Columbus and it is protected today by law as an historical monument The inns also have existed for about half a millennium, and they enjoy a very good reputation for plain but excellently a and served food. The most noteworthy inns are the "Roemischer Kaiser," the "Gasthof Zum Riesen," and the "Frankfurter Hof." Meals range from 65 cents for bratwurst (fried sausage, usually with potato salad) through rump- steak at $1 to cordon bleu, costing $1.50. A specialty of the "Zum Riesen" is fresh trout, commercially bred in a nearby a This succulent dish comes to about $1.25.

Hotel rooms maintain the same low budget reading. They cost from and most of the hoteliers charm their guests into staying longer than was foreseen with their warm hospitality and tales of the magic days of yore. What's more, several of them even claim to have something that will fascinate every woman tourist-the secret to Imma's legendary pancakes! PAGE 20 TUCSON DAILY CITIZEN SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1962.

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Pages Available:
391,799
Years Available:
1941-1977