Overview
- Regional Leonhardiritt and Leonhardifahrt processions took place over the weekend across multiple Bavarian towns, with communities in Schliersee, Rottenbuch, Schongau, Laisacker and Inchenhofen hosting services and parades.
- Schliersee staged 45 horse‑drawn rigs with more than 200 horses while Rottenbuch counted 136 horses, 14 wagons and five landauers, figures organizers used to signal strong local engagement.
- Laisacker resumed its Leonhardiritt after a two‑year pause, drawing about 45 horses and carriages and hundreds of visitors and marking a successful local revival led by new organizers.
- Clergy combined worship and blessing rituals with topical remarks during Masses and field services, including Schongau’s Pfarrer Ulrich Manz celebrating a full Mass and Rottenbuch’s Pfarrer Josef Fegg mourning Hubert Aiwanger’s death and condemning hostile online comments.
- The events reaffirmed Saint Leonhard’s role as patron of farmers and livestock, kept long rural customs alive, strengthened volunteer networks, and gave local leaders a public platform that could shape community cohesion going forward.