Franconian Villages Recognized for Outstanding Living Standards
Bavaria Honours Nine Winning Communities with "Quality Seal Home Village" Award
Nine Bavarian communities were recently awarded the "Quality Seal Home Village 2025" in recognition of their outstanding living quality, strong roots, and cohesion. The Bavarian Ministry of Home Affairs conducted the competition, with Finance and Home Minister Albert Fücker (CSU) presenting the awards at a ceremony in the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche of the Munich Residenz.
Among the winners was the community of Marktleuthen in the upper Franconian district of Wunsiedel, which received a prize money of 60,000 euros. They plan to use this sum to redesign the town center, specifically the Hebanz district, into a "lively and green town center for all generations". The redesign will include paving work, creating an outdoor terrace and a pond path, building a bus shelter, and greenery the area.
Another winner, the community of Langenfeld in the Middle Franconian district of Neustadt/Aisch, will use their prize money to optimize access for goods delivery to the community-owned village store and for shading in the inner courtyard of assisted living. Additional projects in Langenfeld include the purchase of walking trees and mobile plant boxes, and the creation of a planning concept for agricultural fallow land in the town center.
Four of the winning communities are located in Franconia, with the remaining five spread across other regions in Bavaria. Minister Fücker stated that the small communities are the pulsating heart of Bavaria.
In a special honour, a café in Franconian Switzerland received the State Prize "Village Renewal and Building Culture". Unfortunately, details about the plans for the prize money received by the four Franconian communities that won the "Quality Seal Home Village 2025" competition are not currently available.
The prize money is intended to boost the implementation of future projects that will further enhance the quality of life and local attachment in the winning communities. The competition aimed to find small, lively communities in Bavaria with outstanding living quality, strong roots, and cohesion, and it seems that the nine winning communities have certainly met these criteria.
The winning community of Marktleuthen in the upper Franconian district intends to transform the Hebanz district into a vibrant, eco-friendly town center using their prize money for paving work, creating an outdoor terrace, a pond path, constructing a bus shelter, and adding greenery.
In another awarded community, Langenfeld in Middle Franconia, the prize money will be utilized for optimizing access for goods delivery to the community-owned store, improving shade in assisted living Courtyard, buying "walking trees" and mobile plant boxes, as well as creating a planning concept for agricultural fallow land in the town center, thereby enhancing their home-and-garden facilities.
