Kreuzwertheim

Kreuzwertheim

Coat of arms
Kreuzwertheim

Coordinates: 49°46′N 9°31′E / 49.767°N 9.517°E / 49.767; 9.517Coordinates: 49°46′N 9°31′E / 49.767°N 9.517°E / 49.767; 9.517
Country Germany
State Bavaria
Admin. region Unterfranken
District Main-Spessart
Municipal assoc. Kreuzwertheim
Government
 • Mayor Klaus H. Thoma (-)
Area
 • Total 19.98 km2 (7.71 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)[1]
 • Total 3,819
 • Density 190/km2 (500/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 97892
Dialling codes 09342
Vehicle registration MSP
Website www.kreuzwertheim.de

Kreuzwertheim is a market community in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany and the seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (municipal association) of Kreuzwertheim. It has around 3,800 inhabitants.

Geography

Location

The community lies on the right bank of the river Main on the edge of the Spessart, across the river from the town of Wertheim in Baden-Württemberg.

Constituent communities

Kreuzwertheim's Ortsteile are (with year of amalgamation and rough population figures):

The community has the following Gemarkungen (traditional rural cadastral areas): Kreuzwertheim, Röttbach, Unterwittbach, Wiebelbach.

Kreuzwertheim

History

As witnessed by finds of stone hatchets, human settlement in the municipal area goes as far back as the Stone Age. The first known description of the settlement names Werdheim, which can be taken to mean "homestead on the safe riverbank", referring to the community's location on the Main. The community's first documentary mention came (quite likely) as early as 749 (as one of the Fulda Abbey's outlying holdings). Werdheim developed itself into the mother parish for the southeastern Spessart area, which itself was first overseen by the Bishop of Würzburg, and it is to him that the conferring of market rights by King Heinrich II on 22 October 1009 goes back. Two stone towers from the former fortifications, a prominent stone Celtic cross on the church square-marketplace and the little fortress church, whose beginnings lie as far back as the time when Christianization began, still bear witness to this time. From the early 12th century, one branch of the Reginbodo noble family was naming itself after Wertheim. This family had a new defensive complex built on the Main's left bank, whereby, under this new protection, a new settlement arose, which soon took the name Werdheim. In 1192, today's town of Wertheim (across the river) was first mentioned as Suburbium castri Wertheim. About 1200 it was described as an oppidum (town) and in 1244 as a civitas.

Since this time, a new name has been found to better distinguish the community from the one just across the river, one that refers to the stone cross (Kreuz in German) on the marketplace. It was thereafter called Crucwertheim, Heiligen-Creuzeswertheim or also simply Creütz. This last usage is, incidentally, still customary in the local speech.

Kreuzwertheim Castle, residence of the Princes of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg since 1736

After Wertheim was granted town rights in 1306, its counterpart across the Main slid into steep decline, with its market rights coming to mean less and less. The Plague quenched whatever spark was left in the community, and Kreuzwertheim fell into a centuries-long economic slumber.

The former Amt of the Counts of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg was in favour of Prince Primate von Dalberg's Principality of Aschaffenburg mediatized and passed in 1814 with this short-lived principality (by this time it had become a department of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt) to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Demographics

Within town limits, 3,186 inhabitants were counted in 1970, 3,562 in 1987 and in 2000 3,850.

Economy

According to official statistics, there were 1,046 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls working in producing businesses in 1998. In trade and transport this was 0. In other areas, 150 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls were employed, and 1,434 such workers worked from home. There was one processing business. Eight businesses were in construction, and furthermore, in 1999, there were 17 agricultural operations with a working area of 305 ha, of which 295 ha was cropland and 7 ha was meadowland.

Municipal taxes in 1999 amounted to €2,842,000 (converted), of which net business taxes amounted to €1,021,000.

Governance

Mayors

Coat of arms

The community's arms might be described thus: Per fess in chief argent a Celtic cross barby issuant from the line of partition sable, in base azure three roses of the first seeded Or.

The community's oldest surviving seal dates from 1600, and it, too, bore the Celtic cross in reference to the one that still stands in the marketplace. The community's current arms, conferred in 1958, still bear this charge in the upper half of the escutcheon, and in the lower half are the arms once borne by the Counts of Wertheim.[2]

Attractions

Historic monuments include the church square with its still preserved market cross, the surrounding lanes, the old fortress church, the Schultheiß (mayor) Peter Herrschaft's house (built in 1594), the well and the remnants of the old fortifications. Moreover, the Schloss (palatial castle), once built as a widow's seat, and still the Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg princely family's seat today, is a prominent feature in the community.

Education

Notable people

References

  1. ↑ "Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes". Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung (in German). June 2016.
  2. ↑ Origin/meaning of Kreuzwertheim’s arms
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