Six kilometers northwest of Erlangen city center lies the district of Dechsendorf, which today has about 3600 inhabitants (as of 2008), on an area of six square kilometers.
In 1810, the village passed to Bavaria. The population, which had grown only slowly between 1875 (233) and 1945 (360), increased after the Second World War due to the influx of refugees from Silesia and the Sudetenland, who already outnumbered the local population by 1951. With its incorporation into Erlangen in 1972, the town gained 2.138 residents and 639 hectares. A proposed designation of building land for residential and commercial purposes by the municipality was blocked by the city. Instead, it built the beautiful local recreation area "Dechsendorfer Pond“, also “Großer Bischofsweiher”, for which the place is of supra-regional importance today.
With its 3.500 square meters, it is located in the north of the district and is part of the local recreation area named after it. It is also the largest of a chain of approximately 60 carp ponds. The pond's shoreline is 3,8 kilometers long. An attractive campsite encourages guests to enjoy nature. The pond also invites you to swim, sail, surf, and pedal boat in summer, and ice skating and curling are possible in winter.
Attention music and culture lovers: Since 2003, the open-air event “Classics by the Lake” has been held here, which was supplemented by “Jazz by the Lake” in 2015.
