The locals in Franconia have been using rock storage cellars built into the hillsides and hollow-ways for many centuries. The storage cellars had the perfect temperature to store beer, potatoes, turnips and other goods. Especially the cellars used by the local breweries to store their beer were often combined with a beer garden on top of the storage rooms, enabling patrons to drink a cool beer in the shade of large trees. When the proprietors built additional skittle alleys at the end of the 19th century, popularity soared and the rock beer cellars were the object of many an outing and excursion.
A truly historic and original beer storage cellar complex is the Unterhaider Kelleranlage in Unterhaid, the most eastern wine-growing village producing Franconian speciality wines, just a few miles to the west of Bamberg. It has a total of 29 private cellars and one cellar formerly belonging to a brewery. In the summer months the beer garden cellar is open for the public from 4 pm and serves local beer and food specialities. One of the other cellars is inhabited by several endangered species of bats, another shows the geological foundation of the hill due to an open rock fall.
