Organizers of a local medieval festival are garnering interest in their plan to create a German medieval village, The Village of Grunwald, in the northeast corner of the county.
Catherine LeBlanc, co-organizer of the Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival, told the Dubois County Commissioners Monday that several people are interested in relocating to the area and bringing their medieval skills to the German medieval village, which would be the only one in the country once it is built.
“Our whole point of moving here was to start a permanent renaissance fair,” LeBlanc said of herself and her husband, Daniel. “The great thing about a Renaissance fair is that it brings in so much revenue, so much tourism to an area, which is great.” The couple has been working with the county tourism department on the endeavor, she said.
LeBlanc explained that the permanent location would be on farmland just off State Road 545. She wanted to make sure they obeyed whatever rules the county may have to converting the 150 acres of farmland at 3301 N. State Road 545 into the village.
“Since we started talking about it we’ve managed to get a lot of really great people involved,” LeBlanc said. “There are people who want to relocate to the area now to be a part of it.”
Jasper native Josh Emmons is looking to open a culinary school and banquet hall at the village. Jouster Shane Adams, who has produced and hosted a jousting show on the The History Channel, wants to place a medieval dinner tournament location there. Another person is looking at having a meadery at the village.
The LeBlancs also plan to build a castle on the property that could become a hotel. “We want it to be real. A lot of Renaissance fairs build a facade. We just felt with the area’s beauty, we can’t have a facade of a castle when you have the beauty of St. Joseph’s and the monastery and West Baden and the Archabbey. We want to make sure we fit in with the area. We want to make sure what we’re building is beautiful.”
They have also created the Rosenvolk Education Initiative, which will bring more education and demonstrations to the area. “We want to do this interactive education,” she said, “history, but also the showing of different crafts, like blacksmithing and glassblowing, and jousting and mounted archery.”
Since the county does not have zoning, the LeBlancs would not have any issues to tend to with the county. But since the land’s access is on a state road, County Attorney Art Nordhoff told LeBlanc to check with the state for possible compliances.
LeBlanc said that organizers are aware of that, but they wanted to see what zoning issues there could be before they stated talking to people about obtaining land for accessibility and parking.
“That was our biggest concern,” she said. “But we’d like to get this cleared up before we start talking to people on that.”
Nordhoff also mentioned that they will need to take care of other state requirements, such as permits to operate a banquet hall and to build a road to access the property.
Overall, the commissioners were supportive of the idea.
“This is a big idea,” President Chad Blessinger said. “But big ideas and big dreams, I’m 100 percent behind it.”
LeBlanc said that the idea is to build the village, estimated to cost at least $5 million, over the course of several years. Once the group raises money for the project, they will clean up the land and start working on the infrastructure. They have raised the $7,000 that is the down payment for the land. And now they are looking for partners and investors to fund the village’s construction. They will also seek donors to sponsor different aspects of the village, like a stained glass window or a performing act. Anyone interested in becoming a partner or investor can call the LeBlancs at 812-556-0256.
If funding is in place this year, work would start next year and the festival could move to its permanent home in 2019.
Of the more than 260 renaissance fairs in the United States, “we are the only German Renaissance fair,” she said. “And that is getting a lot of attention. We’ve got a lot of people, a strong group of people who are excited about this, because it is German.”
Until the permanent village is built, the festival will continue to be held at 18th Street Park in Ferdinand, she said. This year’s festival will run from Oct. 20 through 22.