Frankenthal is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, after the founder, as the Erkenbertruine — still stand today in the town centre.
In the second half of the 16th century, people from the Netherlands, persecuted for their religious beliefs, settled in Frankenthal. They were industrious and artistic and brought economic prosperity to the town. Some of them were important carpet weavers, jewellers and artists whose Frankenthaler Malerschule ("Frankenthal school of painting") acquired some fame. In 1577 the settlement was raised to the status of a town by the Count Palatine Johann Casimir.
In 1600 Frankenthal was converted to a fortress. In 1621 it was besieged by the Spanish during the Thirty Years' War, and then successively occupied by troops of the opposing sides. Trade and industry were ruined and the town was not reconstructed until 1682.
Frankenthal is a German name which may refer to:
Frankenthal is a municipality in eastern Saxony, Germany. It belongs to the district of Bautzen and lies west of the eponymous city. It is named after Frankish colonists who settled in Lusatia ca. 1200.
Frankenthal is situated at the northern edge of the Lausitzer Bergland (Lusatian Hills), near the city of Bischofswerda.
Trollinger (or Schiava and Vernatsch) is a red German/Italian wine grape variety that was likely first originally cultivated in the wine regions of South Tyrol and Trentino, but today is almost exclusively cultivated on steep, sunny locations in the Württemberg wine region of Baden-Württemberg. It is primarily known under the synonyms Trollinger in Germany, Vernatsch in South Tyrol and Schiava in other Italian regions. As a table grape the variety is sometimes known as Black Hamburg, which is commonly confused with the similar synonym for Black Muscat — a variety that is actually a cross of Trollinger and Muscat of Alexandria.
According to wine expert Oz Clarke, Trollinger has moderate acidity and tends to produce light bodied wines with fruity strawberry and subtle smokey notes.
While the grape is likely northern Italian in origin, the synonym Schiava is closely related to the Italian word for "Slave" and may hint at Slavic origins for the grape variety. Records show that the grape has been growing in the Trentino-Alto Adige region since at least the 13th century. The German synonym Trollinger appears to a be corruption of the word Tirolinger meaning "of Tyrol". The synonym Vernatsch appears to have a similar origins as Vernaccia in having the same root word as "vernacular" or "local". British Master of Wine Nicolas Belfrage has interpreted this association as further evidence that the grape likely originated in the South Tyrol/Alto Adige region.