The Western natural border of Franconia is formed by the Spessart and Rhön Mountains, separating it from the former Rhenish Franconian lands around Aschaffenburg ( officially part of Lower Franconia ), where Hessian dialects are spoken.

To the north it is framed by the Rennsteig ridge of the Thuringian Forest, the Thuringian Highland and the Franconian Forest, the border with the Upper Saxon lands of Thuringia.

The Franconian lands include the present-day South Thuringian districts Schmalkalden-Meiningen, Hildburghausen and Sonneberg, the historic Gau of Grabfeld held by the House of Henneberg from the 11th century and later part of the Wettin duchy of Saxe-Meiningen.

In the first phase, the family gradually added to their lands, at first with many small acquisitions in the Franconian and Bavarian regions of Germany:

The male line of the Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Frederick II " the Quarrelsome " was killed in battle ( the Henneberg branch of the Franconian Babenbergs lived on until 1583 when its lands where divided among the two branches of the Wettin family ).

In the 1680 partition the former Franconian lands of the extinct House of Henneberg fell to Ernest's third son, Bernhard, who chose the town of Meiningen as his residence and became the first Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

Due to the respective local East Franconian German dialects, the adjacent northeastern region of Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken and parts of southern Thuringia are also considered as Franconian regions.

In the city of Heilbronn, beyond the Haller Ebene plateau, South Franconian dialects are spoken.

The major ( East ) Franconian towns in Baden-Württemberg are Schwäbisch Hall on the Kocher — the Imperial City declared itself " Swabian " in 1442 — and Crailsheim on the Jagst River, the main towns in Thuringia are Suhl and Meiningen.

Examples of Franconian cities founded by Frankish noblemen are Würzburg, first mentioned in the 7th century, Ansbach, first mentioned in 748, and Weissenburg, founded in the 7th century.

While Dutch is classified as a Low Franconian language, the Dutch Low Saxon varieties, which are also defined as Dutch dialects, form a dialect continuum with the Westphalian language.

Major tributaries of the Main are the Regnitz, the Franconian Saale, the Tauber, and the Nidda.

Dialects with strong Frisian substrates, including Low German and Low Franconian, are also spoken in West Frisia.

There are many other legends about Pilate in the folklore of Germany, particularly about his birth, according to which Pilate was born in the Franconian city of Forchheim or the small village of Hausen only 5 km away from it.

The modern Low Franconian languages are:

It's the only area in Germany where the traditional dialects are Low Franconian, rather than Low German or High German.

The name Jura (, related to Jurassic ) derives from the Jura mountains, of which the Swabian and Franconian plateaux are geographically part.

West of the river the land rises to the Franconian Jura, while there are gentle hills on the eastern side in the angle between Naab and Vils.

Clementine zu Castell-Rüdenhausen ( b. 1912 ), a countess and member of the higher Franconian aristocracy, was appointed lead of Gau Unterfranken in 1933, at the age of 21, which also seems to have been the age when she joined the BDM, as no earlier date of membership nor any previous lower positions are recorded in her case.

Important geotopes are found at the Swabian Alb, mainly in valleys at the foremost northwest ridge of the cuesta ; in many valleys of the eroded periphery of the karstic Franconian Jura ; at the northern Alpine foothills ; and the northern Karst Alps.

Large portions of the Franconian Jura are part of the Altmühl Valley Nature Park.

There are arguments that support a relative freedom of rhythm in Organa dupla but others refute this, saying that the interpretation of the music should always be according to modal or Franconian principles.

Its dialects are thoroughly Franconian and comprise the parts of the Rhinelandic continuum located south of the Benrath line isogloss, including the following sub-families:

Apart from West Central German on the southern edge and in south-east Franconian dialects are turning to Upper German.

This transition area between Central German and Upper German is captured by the dialect families of South Franconian German and East Franconian German, colloquially miscalled Franconian as dialects of this sub-family are spoken all over Franconia.

The major portion of the Franconian wine region is situated in Lower Franconia.

It evolved into Old Low Franconian in the north and it was replaced step by step by Langue d ' oïl in the south.

The boundary between the ( East ) Franconian dialect in the north and west and the ( North ) Bavarian and Upper Palatine dialects in the east and south runs diagonally through the Fichtelgebirge from northeast to southwest.

In the north it is joined by the Franconian Saale River.

Bad Königshofen im Grabfeld is a small spa town in the Rhön-Grabfeld district, in the north east of Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany on the Franconian Saale a few kilometers from the border with Thuringia.

The language area is located in the transient zone between Rhine Franconian dialects ( Hessian and Palatinate German ) in the north and Alemannic German ( Low Alemannic and Swabian German ) in the south.

The scope of East Franconian is disputed, because it overlaps with neighbour dialects like Bavarian and Swabian in the south, Rhine Franconian in the west and Upper Saxon in the north.

Located between the Pegnitz River in the east and the south, the Regnitz River in the west and the Main River in the north, its relief, which reaches 600 metres in height, forms the northern part of the Franconian Jura ( Frankenjura ).

To the north, it is bounded by the Sankt Goar line (“ das / dat line ”) which separates it from Moselle Franconian ; to the south, it is bounded by the Main line which is also referred to as the Speyer line which separates it from the Upper German dialects.

The hills of the Franconian Jura in the south mark the border with the Upper Bavarian region ( Altbayern ), historic Swabia, and the Danube basin.

Many villages in the very south of Upper Lusatia contain a typical attraction of the region, the so-called Umgebindehäuser, half-timbered-houses representing a combination of Franconian and Slavic style.

Meanwhile the Emperor recalled the Bavarian, Swabian, and Franconian troops under the Elector of Bavaria from the Ottoman front to defend south Germany.

( German, literally means ' liver cheese '; sometimes spelled Leberkäs or Leberka ( a ) s in Austria and the Swabian, Bavarian and Franconian parts of Germany and Fleischkäse in Saarland, Switzerland and the Tyrol ) is a specialty food found in the south of Germany, in Austria and parts of Switzerland, similar to bologna sausage.

Until 1825, Saalfeld remained one of two capitals of the duchy, together with Coburg, its Franconian sister town to the south.

Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is a world-famous health resort.

While in the region around Bautzen a pretty good High German is spoken, in the south the Upper Lusatian dialect ( Oberlausitzisch ), an old Franconian dialect, is common.

Lorraine Franconian is distinct from neighbouring Alsatian, to the south, although the two are often confused.