- Ellwangen
Infobox German Location
Art = Stadt
Wappen = Wappen Ellwangen Jagst.png
lat_deg = 48 |lat_min = 57 |lat_sec = 40
lon_deg = 10 |lon_min = 7 |lon_sec = 50
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Baden-Württemberg
Regierungsbezirk = Stuttgart
Landkreis = Ostalbkreis
Höhe = 440
Fläche = 127.45
Einwohner = 25078
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 73479
PLZ-alt = 7090
Vorwahl = 07961, 07965
Kfz = AA
Gemeindeschlüssel = 08 1 36 019
Gliederung = "Kernstadt" and 4 "Stadtteil e"
Adresse = Spitalstraße 4
73479 Ellwangen
Website = [http://www.ellwangen.de/ www.ellwangen.de]
Bürgermeister = Karl Hilsenbek
Bürgermeistertitel = Oberbürgermeister
Partei = parteilosEllwangen an der Jagst, officially Ellwangen (Jagst), in common use simply Ellwangen is a town in the district of
Ostalbkreis in the east ofBaden-Württemberg inGermany . It is situated about 17 km north ofAalen .Ellwangen has 25,000 inhabitants.
Geography
Ellwangen is situated in the valley of river
Jagst , between the foothills ofSwabian Alb andVirngrund (ancient Virgundia) forest, the latter being part of theSwabian-Franconian Forest . The Jagst runs through Ellwangen from south to north.History
The town developed in the 7th century as an alemanic settlement in the Virgunna forest next to the
Franconia n-Swabia n border. In764 French noblesHariolf andErlolf (the latterbishop of Langres in France) founded abenedictine monastery,Ellwangen Abbey , on a hill next to the settlement. The monastery was mentioned in a document ofLouis the Pious as "Elehenuuwang" in 814. It became aReichsabtei in 817.From 870 to 873 the Byzantine Greek "apostle of the slaws"
Saint Methodius was imprisoned in Ellwangen, after he had been arrested byErmanrich ,bishop of Passau . He was set free in 873 thanks to an intervention ofPope John VIII .The monastery was "exempt" from 1124 on (maybe earlier), which means it was directly responsible to the pope. The
Abbot s gotReichsfreiheit in 1215. The office of theVogt was first held by the counts ofOettingen , from 1370 on by the counts ofWürttemberg . In 1460 the abbey was converted into an exempt secular "Chorherrenstift", led by a prince-provost and a "Stiftskapitel" (12 noble canons, 10vicar s ). First its territory included the districts Ellwangen, Tannenberg and Kochenburg. The district Rötlen was acquired in 1471, Wasseralfingen in 1545,Heuchlingen in 1609.In 1588 and from 1611 to 1618 about 450 people in Ellwangen were killed in
witch-hunt s.After
German Mediatisation Ellwangen became in 1802 a part of the duchy ofWürttemberg . First it was government seat of Neuwürttemberg, the territories Württemberg had acquired by mediatisation. In 1803 the town became center of a district (Oberamt), which was in 1806 included into the new Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1807 Ellwangen became seat of the "Jagstkreis" (Jagst District), until the district was merged into a larger unit in 1924. The king of Württemberg, who had acquired large areas with a predominantlyroman-catholic population, wanted Ellwangen to become seat of a Roman-Catholicdiocese . To achieve this, he founded in Ellwangen in 1812 anordinary and aseminary as well as a Roman-catholic theological faculty. The faculty was soon moved toTübingen , where it became part of Eberhard Karls University. The seminary and the ordinary went in 1817 toRottenburg am Neckar , that became in 1821 seat of the new-formed diocese for Württemberg.During
World War II , a subcamp of theDachau concentration camp was located here. [glosk.com/GM/Linde/17283/pages/List_of_subcamps_of_Dachau/84737_en.htm]Buildings
Sights of the city are the medieval town centre with its churches. Also well known are the
Baroque pilgrimage church "Schoenenberg " and the castle, both on hills near to the city.Ellwangen Basilica: [http://www.limesstrasse.de/Ellwangen/basilika.jpg]
Schoenenberg: [http://www.exerzitien.info/addes-bilder/b1122.jpg]
Twin towns
*
Langres (Haute-Marne ,France )
*Abbiategrasso (Province of Milan ,Italy )External links
* [http://www.ellwangen.de/ Official website of Ellwangen]
References
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