Kirchberg, Rhein-Hunsrück - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

History

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

finds make it clear that by 400 BC, the Treveri

Treveri

The Treveri or Treviri were a tribe of Gauls who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, at the latest, until their eventual absorption into the Franks...

, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

stock, from whom the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

name for the city of Trier

Trier

Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....

, Augusta Treverorum
History of Trier
Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, whose history dates to the Roman Empire, is often claimed to be the oldest city in Germany. Traditionally it was known in English by its French name of Treves.- Prehistory :...

, is also derived, had settled here. In the 1st century BC, the Romans built a military road, the so-called Via Ausonia, from Trier by way of Neumagen

Neumagen-Dhron

Neumagen-Dhron is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Neumagen-Dhron and a state-recognized tourism community...

, the Stumpfer Turm (“Stub Tower”) near Wederath

Morbach

Morbach is a municipality that belongs to no Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

(the Roman Belginum on the boundary between the Roman provinces of Belgica

Gallia Belgica

Gallia Belgica was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of Gallia Belgica, the Belgae, consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes...

and Germania Inferior

Germania Inferior

Germania Inferior was a Roman province located on the left bank of the Rhine, in today's Luxembourg, southern Netherlands, parts of Belgium, and North Rhine-Westphalia left of the Rhine....

), Kirchberg and Bingen to Mainz. In what is now the town’s east end, they built a settlement called Dumno or Vicus Dumnissus. This name is shown on a roadmap from late antiquity – the 4th century AD – of which today still exists an accurate copy from the 12th century, the Tabula Peutingeriana

Tabula Peutingeriana

The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...

, named after its discoverer, Konrad Peutinger

Konrad Peutinger

Conrad Peutinger was a German humanist diplomat, politician, and economist, who was educated at Bologna and Padua. Known as a notorious antiquarian, he collected, with the help of Marcus Welser and his wife Margareta Welser, one of the largest private libraries north of the...

. In 368, the Roman poet and educator Decimius Magnus Ausonius

Ausonius

Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...

also mentioned Dumnissus in his poem Mosella, which contains a poetic description of his trip from Bingen by way of the Hunsrück to Neumagen and Trier. This makes Kirchberg the oldest known settlement on the heights framed by the Moselle, the Rhine, the Nahe and the Saar.

In the 5th century, Rome’s holdings passed to the Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

kings’ crown estate. From the Roman settlement of Vicus Dumnissus arose a new settlement, which no later than the 7th century got its first church, a wooden building that was likely built on the same spot where Saint Michael’s Church now stands. This new settlement was named Chiriperg, from which developed the modern name Kirchberg. In 995, King Otto III

Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...

bestowed upon Count of the Trechirgau

Trechirgau

The Trechirgau was a mediaeval administrative district, a gau. It belonged to the Duchy of Lorraine. Its exact extent is only roughly known and it lay in the triangle formed by Enkirch, Koblenz and Oberwesel.- History :...

Bezelin, the forefather of the Gau-comital family Berthold-Bezelin

Berthold-Bezelin

The Berthold-Bezelins were a German noble family from the 10th century, whose sphere of influence and property laid about the Trechirgau and Maifeldgau. They were the Counts of Stromberg before that county became a part of the Rhenish County Palatine. The family is named after the prevailing first...

, the hitherto royal estate of Denzen (praedium Domnissa). In 1074, the family then transferred the eastern half of this holding, along with the village of Denzen, to the Ravengiersburg Augustinian

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

Canonical Foundation, which the counts had endowed. The western half, along with Kirchberg, passed in 1248 to the Counts of Sponheim

County of Sponheim

The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...

. Thereafter, Kirchberg’s historical development was tightly bound to the Sponheims and their heirs. Kirchberg was granted town rights in 1259, making it the oldest town on the Hunsrück.

When the County of Sponheim

County of Sponheim

The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...

was partitioned in the 13th century into the “Further” and “Hinder” Counties, the Amt of Kirchberg passed to the former, and then once the Sponheims had died out in 1437 to the joint lordship of the Electors Palatine, the Margrave of Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

and the Count of Veldenz (later Palatinate-Simmern

Palatinate-Simmern

Palatinate-Simmern was one of the collateral lines of the Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach.The Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach was divided into four lines after the death of Rupert III in 1410, including the line of Palatinate-Simmern with its capital in Simmern. This line...

) with the administrative seat in Kirchberg. In 1689, French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

troops destroyed the town and its defences. The joint lordship was brought to an end by the 1708 Realteilung (literally “material division”), whereby the Amt of Kirchberg passed, along with the Unteramt of Koppenstein, to Baden; Kirchberg became the seat of the like-named Badish Oberamt. The last Badish Oberamtmann was Baron Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Friedrich Drais von Sauerbronn, whose son was Karl Drais

Karl Drais

Karl Drais was a German inventor and invented the Laufmaschine , also later called the velocipede, draisine or "draisienne" , also nicknamed the dandy horse. This incorporated the two-wheeler principle that is basic to the bicycle and motorcycle and was the beginning of mechanized personal...

, the inventor of the velocipede

Velocipede

Velocipede is an umbrella term for any human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle....

and the draisine

Draisine

A draisine primarily refers to a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure....

. From 1794 to 1814, Kirchberg was the administrative seat of a French French canton

Cantons of France

The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's 342 arrondissements and 101 departments.Apart from their role as organizational units in certain aspects of the administration of public services and justice, the chief purpose of the cantons today is to serve as...

in the arrondissement of Simmern; in 1815 the town became the seat of a Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n Landbürgermeisterei (“Rural Mayoralty”) with 18 outlying municipalities.

On 10 February 1928, the neighbouring village to the east, Denzen, the former Dumnissus, was amalgamated with the town of Kirchberg despite the villagers’ resistance to the move. Since 1946, the town has been part of the then newly founded state

States of Germany

Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

of Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

Ecclesiastical relations

As early as Carolingian times, the greater parish of Kirchberg had arisen on the lands of the Denzen crown estate with a central baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

al church in Kirchberg along with chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

s in Gemünden

Gemünden, Rhein-Hunsrück

Gemünden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, Dickenschied

Dickenschied

-History:-Prehistory and early history:The Dickenschied area was settled as early as the New Stone Age, as witnessed by finds in the neighbouring municipalities of Woppenroth and Gemünden...

, Womrath

Womrath

Womrath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, Denzen, Kappel, Metzenhausen

Metzenhausen

Metzenhausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, Ober Kostenz

Ober Kostenz

Ober Kostenz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

, Würrich

Würrich

Würrich is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

and Altlay

Altlay

Altlay is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

. Until the 16th century, Kirchberg was one of the important centres of clerical organization on the countryside. The pastoral region of Kirchberg comprised 51 towns and villages.

Elector Palatine Ottheinrich

Otto Henry, Elector Palatine

Otto-Henry, Elector Palatine, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty was Count Palatine of Palatinate-Neuburg from 1505 to 1559 and prince elector of the Palatinate from 1556 to 1559...

arranged visitation

Visitor

A Visitor, in United Kingdom law and history, is an overseer of an autonomous ecclesiastical or eleemosynary institution , who can intervene in the internal affairs of that institution...

for the Amt of Kirchberg and introduced the Lutheran

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

faith. In May 1599 came another official conversion

Religious conversion

Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...

: under Frederick IV, Elector Palatine

Frederick IV, Elector Palatine

Frederick IV, Elector Palatine of the Rhine , only surviving son of Louis VI, Elector Palatine and Elisabeth of Hesse, called "Frederick the Righteous" .-Life:Born in Amberg, his father died in October 1583 and...

, the Reformed

Reformed churches

The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...

faith became the prescribed belief.

This was not the last time that religious beliefs were imposed by lords or military authorities. As of 1625, under Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

occupation, Catholicism was reintroduced; between 1631 and 1635, under Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

influence, it was the Reformed faith once again; between 1635 and 1648 it was once again Catholicism; as of 1648, it was yet again the Reformed faith. By agreement in 1652, the Catholics were granted the right to celebrate Mass

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

at the Badish seneschal

Seneschal

A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...

’s house.

Michaelskirche

In 1688, a simultaneum

Simultaneum

A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...

was introduced at Saint Michael’s Church (Michaelskirche) on the condition that Catholics and Evangelicals

Evangelical Church in Germany

The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...

were to hold their services alone at predetermined times at the church whose ownership they shared, each holding half. The Catholics were furthermore granted the sole right to use the quire with its High Altar, the two side altars and the confessional

Confessional

A confessional is a small, enclosed booth used for the Sacrament of Penance, often called confession, or Reconciliation. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church, but similar structures are also used in Anglican churches of an Anglo-Catholic orientation, and also in the...

s. This simultaneum was dissolved by a notarial agreement with both denominations’ assent on 15 June 1965, and a new arrangement was put in place: the Evangelical parish sold the Catholic parish its one-half share in the church, which allowed the former to make possible a new church building, the Friedenskirche (“Peace Church”) with a community centre. A further ruling allowed the Evangelical parish to use Saint Michael’s Church, as before, until its own church was ready for use, and further still, it allowed the Catholic parish to be guests at the Friedenskirche as long as thorough restoration work was being undertaken at Saint Michael’s and its tower and until preliminary archaeological digs by the Koblenz Office for Prehistory

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

and Protohistory

Protohistory

Protohistory refers to a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings...

(Amt für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Koblenz) were over. All work was complete on 6 July 1969.

The digs under Saint Michael’s Church brought to light that the buildings were the most historically important and quite possibly the oldest church buildings on the Hunsrück, and that the current Late Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

hall church

Hall church

A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....

in Kirchberg’s town centre had three stone predecessor buildings. Their foundations were partly unearthed and can now be visited under the church’s quire.

Building I from the time after 700 was a small, rectangular aisleless church

Aisleless church

An Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...

with a square quire that was narrower than the nave. Among other things found in this building was a fragment of an early Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

tomb slab with inscription, held to be the oldest evidence that there were already Christians on the Hunsrück in Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

times.

Building II, built about 850, was another aisleless church roughly twice the size of the earlier church, but with a baptismal facility and a gallery somewhere near the entrance.

Building III was a three-naved, flat-ceiled basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

with a semicircular apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

built sometime before 1050, likewise with a baptismal facility and a west gallery. Today’s churchtower was built about 1200 on the lower floor of Building III, and later made taller and more complete.

From 1460 to 1485, yet another church, the one that still stands today, was built on the foundations of the three foregoing churches, with the inside doubled in size once again. The new church was given a main portal and a porch on the south side. Among the things inside the church that are worthy of note are the stonemasons’ marks in the nave, found on pillars and ribs, the sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

from about 1490, grave memorials from the 15th to 18th century with Catharina von Hoising’s well known tomb in the quire (Master Johann von Trarbach, after 1577), the baptismal font with the combined coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

of the families who put forth the endowment (earlier half of the 18th century), the High Altar, the two side altars and the design of the organ pipe

Organ pipe

An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...

ranks from the latter half of the 18th century. The church’s paintings were done in 1969 working from remnants that had been found and expanding thereon from historical models.

The church square around Saint Michael’s Church, which until 1792 was still serving as a graveyard, is today framed on all sides by rows of houses. On the west side stands the Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

building of the former Piarist

Piarists

The Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools or, in short, Piarists , is the name of the oldest Catholic educational order also known as the Scolopi, Escolapios or Poor Clerics of the Mother of God...

monastery from 1765, which today serves as a rectory and a community centre. The restored coat of arms above the portal shows the arms borne by Augustus George, Margrave of Baden-Baden

Augustus George, Margrave of Baden-Baden

Augustus George of Baden-Baden was the ruling Margrave of Baden-Baden from 1761 till his death in 1771. He succeeded his brother Louis George and was the brother of the Duchess of Orléans...

along with his other arms in right of his various holdings: the “Further” County of Sponheim, the County of Eberstein, the Breisgau

Breisgau

Breisgau is the name of an area in southwest Germany, placed between the river Rhine and the foothills of the Black Forest around Freiburg im Breisgau in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, which partly consists of the Breisgau, is named after that area...

, Badenweiler

Badenweiler

Badenweiler, a health resort and spa of the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, historically in the Markgräflerland. It is 28 kilometers by road and rail from Basel, 10 kilometers from the French border, and 20 kilometers away from Mulhouse...

, the Margraviate of Baden, the Lordship of Üsenberg, Rötteln, Lahr

Lahr

Lahr is a city in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany, approximately 38 km north of Freiburg in Breisgau and 100 km south of Karlsruhe...

, Mahlberg and the “Hinder” County of Sponheim.

Friedenskirche

The Evangelical

Evangelical Church in Germany

Friedenskirche (“Peace Church”) with a community centre was built mainly to Trier architect H.O. Vogel’s plans. The foundation stone was taken from the walling beside the portal at Saint Michael’s Church. The baptismal font, carved from a stone worked in Roman times and unearthed during the digs under Saint Michael’s, is a gift from the Catholic parish. In return, the Evangelical parish gave the Catholic parish a bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

basin for the baptismal font in the quire at Saint Michael’s.

The church’s organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, with 23 stops, was built by Gebr. Oberlinger Orgelbau of Windesheim

Windesheim

The name Windesheim may refer to:* Windesheim, Netherlands, a place in the Netherlands, near Zwolle*the Christelijke Hogeschool Windesheim, a Christian institution of higher education there...

near Bad Kreuznach

Bad Kreuznach

Bad Kreuznach is the capital of the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located on the Nahe river, a tributary of the Rhine...

.

The garden pavilion and the well before the Peace Church formed the centre of a walled garden about 1780, supposedly laid out by the then Badish Oberamtmann.

Nikolaus-Kapelle

The Nikolaus-Kapelle – or Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...

’s Chapel

Chapel

– that stands today in Kirchberg-Denzen, with its Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

quire tower, looks back on a long tradition: An earlier building had until 955 John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

as its patron. In Ottonian times, the chapel was reconsecrated to Saint Nicholas, following what was then customary in the Rhineland.

Synagogue

The Jews who lived in Kirchberg, mainly in the time from the 18th to 20th century, together formed a religious community. They owned a small synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

on Glöcknergasse, a religious school and their own graveyard on Metzenhausener Straße, which is still preserved.

Town council

The council is made up of 20 council members, who were elected by proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:

	SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...	CDU	FDP Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party that is ideologically based around liberalism...	FWG	Total
2009	4	8	4	4	20 seats
2004	4	9	2	5	20 seats

Mayor

Kirchberg’s mayor is Udo Kunz (CDU), and his deputies are Wolfgang Krämer (CDU), Werner Klockner (SPD) and Harald Wüllenweber (FWG), although unusually, Mr. Klockner is not also a town council member.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: Das Stadtwappen zeigt in einem spätgotischen Rundschild auf rotem Grund winkelmäßig angeordnet abwechselnd je 16 in gold und blau gehaltene Quadrate. Darunter befindet sich die gräfliche Krone.

The town’s arms

Coat of arms

might in English heraldic

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

language be described thus: Gules a chevron countercompony Or and azure throughout, in base a crown of the second.

The whole coat of arms refers to Kirchberg’s former allegiance to the “Further” County of Sponheim

County of Sponheim

The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...

. The chevron countercompony (that is, chequered in two rows) refers to the “chequy” arms borne by the Counts, with the squares here in the same tincture

Tincture (heraldry)

In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...

s as they were in theirs. The crown, too, refers to the town’s bygone days as a Sponheim holding.

Earlier compositions of the arms also included a mural crown (that is, a crown resembling a castle wall with battlements) on top of the escutcheon; this referred to the town’s old fortifications.

Town partnerships

Kirchberg fosters partnerships with the following places: Villeneuve-l'Archevêque

Villeneuve-l'Archevêque

Villeneuve-l'Archevêque is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.-References:*...

, Yonne

Yonne

Yonne is a French department named after the Yonne River. It is one of the four constituent departments of Burgundy in eastern France and its prefecture is Auxerre. Its official number is 89....

, France

France

, a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

in Burgundy

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:

Kirchberg (main centre)

Saint Michael’s Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Michael), Kirchplatz 12 – Late Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

hall church
Hall church
A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....

, about 1490, west tower 13th century, upper floors about 1500, spire about 1700 (see also above)
Auf der Schied 12 – watertower
Eifelgasse (no number) – Altes Zollhaus (“Old Tollhouse”) of the Badish Truchsesserei (seneschal’s office); building with hipped roof, 18th century
Eifelgasse 1 – timber-frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

house, partly solid, mansard roof
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...

, 18th century, timber-frame barn, 19th century
Hauptstraße 39 – post office; Historicist
Historicism (art)
Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans. After neo-classicism, which could itself be considered a historicist movement, the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by a return to a more ancient classicism, in particular in...

plastered façade, mid 19th century
At Hauptstraße 75 – staircase tower on back of house, marked 1578
Kirchplatz – former graveyard cross, originally marked 174(?), destroyed in 1919 and renovated
Kirchplatz 2 – former Piarist
Piarists
The Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools or, in short, Piarists , is the name of the oldest Catholic educational order also known as the Scolopi, Escolapios or Poor Clerics of the Mother of God...

monastery; today a Catholic rectory, seven-axis Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

building with mansard roof, marked 1765; in rectory garden a fountain
Kirchplatz 3 – former sexton’s house; timber-frame house, partly solid and slated, hipped mansard roof, marked 1754
Kirchplatz 5 – building with hipped mansard roof, timber framing plastered, about 1800
Kirchplatz 9 – timber-frame house, partly solid and slated, hipped mansard roof, 18th century
Kirchplatz 1–12, Marktplatz 9–11, Hauptstraße 20, 24–36 (even numbers), (monumental zone) – tree-lined square around the Catholic parish church with rectory and former graveyard cross
Marktplatz 4 – Schwanenapotheke (“Swans’ Pharmacy”), timber-frame house, partly solid, mid to latter half of the 17th century
Marktplatz 5/6 – no. 5 town hall, timber-frame building, partly solid, hipped mansard roof, early 17th century, conversion in 1746; no. 6 former Haus der Weber (“Weavers’ House”), timber-frame building, partly solid, timber-frame oriel marked 1698, house possibly from the earlier half of the 17th century
Marktplatz 7 – timber-frame house, partly solid, plastered, about 1700, mansard roof towards 1800
Marktplatz 9 – timber-frame house, partly slated, 19th century
Marktplatz 11 – timber-frame house, partly solid, latter half of the 17th century
Marktplatz 1, 3–11, Hauptstraße 15–25 (odd numbers), 18 (monumental zone) – grouped round the nearly rectangular marketplace, houses, all with two floors, from the 17th to 19th century
Oberstraße 1 – building with hipped mansard roof, partly plastered and slated, early 19th century
Schülergasse 2 – local history museum; wedge-shaped timber-frame house, possibly from the 18th or 19th century
Simmerner Straße – garden pavilion, polygonal Baroque plastered building, 18th century
Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

graveyard (monumental zone) – opened before 1850, 67 gravestones from 1865 to 1937

Denzen

Saint Nicholas’s Catholic Church (Kirche St. Nikolaus), Dumnissusstraße – Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

quire tower, 13th century, aisleless church
Aisleless church
An Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...

, 1966, architect O. Vogel (see also above)
Near Oststraße 24 – Baroque baptismal font, 17th century

Other buildings and sites worth seeing are:

the historical Roman fountain in the outlying centre of Denzen;
the youth centre “Am Zug”, an interdenominational meeting place for youth with all-day supervision sponsored by the club “we-SHARE”, which is involved in international humanitarian endeavours.

Museums

The Kirchberger Heimatmuseum (local history museum) on Eifelgasse gives the visitor an impression of the townsfolk’s lives in bygone centuries.

Old pictures of the town

In both the important collections of town portraits from the 17th century, the one by Daniel Meisner and Eberhard Kieser entitled Thesaurus philopoliticus (“Political Treasure Chest”) and also the one by Matthäus Merian

Matthäus Merian

Matthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...

entitled Topographia Germaniae, are found copper engravings of Kirchberg. The former image, from 1623, was actually done by copper engraver Sebastian Furck, as witnessed by the Latin

Latin

signature SF fecit (“SF made it”).

The second town portrait, by Matthäus Merian, comes from 1645. In the accompanying description, it says of Kirchberg: “Ist nicht groß, aber vor diesem Krieg fein erbaut gewesen”, or “Is not big, but before this war (meaning the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

) was nicely built”.

An oil painting

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

of Kirchberg from before 1610 is only preserved in old photographs. Also most instructive about the town’s history are three town plans from 1635, 1655 and 1688.

Sport and leisure

Kirchberg has both an indoor and an outdoor swimming pool

Swimming pool

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

, a tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

hall, the open youth centre “Am Zug” and an indoor climbing hall.

The Freiherr von Drais Radweg (“Baron von Drais Cycle Path”) leads in a loop round the town for 14 km. The Lützelsoon-Radweg, another cycle path, to Kirn

Kirn

Kirn is a town in the district of Bad Kreuznach, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Nahe, roughly 10 km north-east of Idar-Oberstein and 30 km west of Bad Kreuznach....

, begins in Kirchberg. Moreover, there are a sport club called TuS Kirchberg 1909 and a handball club called HSV Kirchberg 1974.

Transport

Kirchberg lies at the crossing of two old highways: Trier-Kirchberg-Bingen-Mainz (now Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...

50) and Middle Moselle

Mittelmosel

The name Mittelmosel refers to the approximately 120-kilometer section of the river Moselle, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany from the city of Trier to Zell...

-Nahe (now Bundesstraße 421). Since 1990, the inner town has been spared heavy traffic by the B 50 bypass. Foreseen for the railway line, the Hunsrückquerbahn (Langenlonsheim-Stromberg-Rheinböllen-Simmern-Kirchberg-Hermeskeil), is at least partial reactivation, although for the time being it still lies idle.

West of the town, 12 km away, lies Frankfurt-Hahn Airport

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport

-Cargo airlines:-Other facilities:AirIT Services AG, a subsidiary of Fraport, has its head office in Building 663 at Hahn Airport.-References:*Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 USAF Reference Series, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force,...

with international connections.

Education

The town of Kirchberg has a primary school, a Hauptschule

Hauptschule

A Hauptschule is a secondary school in Germany and Austria, starting after 4 years of elementary schooling, which offers Lower Secondary Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education...

and a Realschule

Realschule

The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...

Sons and daughters of the town

Otto Back (1834-1917), district chairman in Simmern, Mayor of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

(now in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

; then Straßburg, Germany), Landtag president

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Ecclesiastical relations

Michaelskirche

Friedenskirche

Nikolaus-Kapelle

Synagogue

Town council

Mayor

Coat of arms

Town partnerships

Buildings

Kirchberg (main centre)

Denzen

Museums

Old pictures of the town

Sport and leisure

Transport

Education

Sons and daughters of the town

Further reading (in chronological order)

External links