Fruitland Cycle Route - Part II - History of Fruit Growing

The heart of this section of the route is the small town of Mügeln with its medieval town center, the Mügeln train station geoportal "Kaolin Adventure World" at the Mügeln narrow-gauge railway station, and the St. Marienthal Monastery in Sornzig. In the Cistercian monastery, built in 1241 and surrounded by an orchard, the nuns introduced fruit cultivation, established medicinal herb gardens, and raised fish in the monastery pond.

1241 – Siegfried von Mügeln founded the monastery “St. Marienthal”. Thanks to the nuns of the Cistercian order, Sornzig became the historical cradle of fruit growing in the region around Mügeln. In 1539, the monastery was dissolved as a result of the Reformation and became state property with changing owners until 1892. Fruit growing experienced a real new lease of life thanks to the Leipzig city planner Ludolf Colditz, who founded the Kloster Gärtnerei GmbH Sornzig in 1895. The Colditz family was expropriated in 1946. Fruit growing was now successfully continued in an LPG and, since 1990, in the Klosterobst GmbH. The listed ensemble of the monastery in Sornzig is now a popular place for meetings, education and recreation. It is located in the middle of a park landscape with three orchards (wild and scattered fruit). The sponsor is the Dr. Ludolf Colditz Kloster Marienthal Foundation.

More about the cycle routes in the Leipzig region: www.leipzig.travel/radfahren