When you walk through the snow on the Rennsteig, all is well with the world – and, it goes without saying, with Thuringia. It need not necessarily be snow, the incomparable dawn of spring, the breath of summer or the leaves of autumn will do as well. You feel the tranquillity on your skin, and wonder if anyone at all in Frankfurt realizes what is to be had right there on their very doorstep. Thuringia is just the place to spend a long weekend, complete, of late, with wellness programme, Nordic walking, ski rentals, and as always the indestructible Rennsteig, where walkers greet one another with the words “Gut Runst”, which means “good progress to you”, though this is not obligatory; “Glückauf”, or good luck, will also be gladly acknowledged.

These Thuringians are friendly people, always have been, almost like Saint Elisabeth who came to the Wartburg from Hungary as a four-year-old girl and was later married off, but never forgot the old and the sick despite the splendour of her surroundings. Prince Louis IV was not so enthusiastic about her generosity. Once when she was making her way down to the poor with a basket full of bread, her parsimonious husband stopped her and asked gruffly what she was carrying under her cloak. She threw it back to find the bread had been turned into roses.

The Rose Miracle has been known in the West ever since. And every year Thuringia acknowledges people who quietly do good works with the award of the Rose of Thuringia, a great honour and a medallion made of porcelain. In the summer of 2007, the 800th anniversary of the saint’s birth, a major state exhibition is being organized in collaboration with the neighbouring state of Hesse, particularly Marburg, which is the town where Elisabeth died and was once part of Thuringia.