Monreal

Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Mayen-Koblenz
Association municipality :	Vordereifel
Height :	300 m above sea level NHN
Area :	14.64 km 2
Residents:	757 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	52 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	56729
Area code :	02651
License plate :	MYK, MY
Community key :	07 1 37 074
Association administration address:	Kelberger Strasse 26 ; 56727 Mayen
Website :	www.monreal-eifel.de
Local Mayor :	André Übener
Location of the local community Monreal in the Mayen-Koblenz district

Monreal, aerial photo (2015)

View over Monreal (2014)

Monreal is a local community in the Elz valley in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate , which is part of the Vordereifel community and has its administrative headquarters in Mayen . Above the village lie the ruins of the Löwenburg and Philippsburg .

geography

The residential areas Burghof, Cond, Lauxhof, Müsch, Augstmühle, Polcherholz, Schäfereihof, Schnürenhof and Suhrhof also belong to Monreal .

history

The oldest surviving traces of settlement in Monreal date from pre-Christian times. It was first mentioned in a document in 1193 as "Cunisberch" (Königsberg). At the beginning of the 13th century, the Counts of Virneburg extended their sphere of influence to the small settlement. In keeping with the fashion of the time, they used the French name “Monroial” (= Königsberg) from then on. Later it became today's name "Monreal".

Hermann III. von Virneburg began building the large castle around 1220 , although he neither had the necessary permits nor the rights to the land. This belonged to the manor Mertloch of the Archbishop of Trier , whose local administrator in worldly matters was Hermann's brother Philipp von Virneburg . Hermann was forced to take this drastic step in order to advance his count dynasty politically. His headquarters, the Virneburg , was too far away from the economic centers. However, the Monreal spot bordered directly on the Middle Rhine Basin . There were the favorable agricultural areas and above all the volcanic rock deposits. The Virneburgers wanted to get their piece of it. In fact, Hermann's calculation worked: he was allowed to keep his castle and was enfeoffed by the Count Palatine near Rhine with the entire high court district of the small Pellenz in the first third of the 13th century . The Virneburgers continued to be well-disposed towards their town of Monreal . As early as 1306 they obtained city rights and market rights . A weekly market was held in Monreal every Monday.

Monreal belonged to the territory of the Archbishopric of Trier , but the Virneburg Counts maintained excellent relationships with the Archbishopric of Cologne . This led to frequent conflicts between the Monrealers and Trier. In 1545 the Counts of Virneburg died out. Trier then drew the Monreal fiefdom to itself and put its own bailiffs in the castle. The resulting Amt Monreal was later subordinated to the Oberamt Mayen .

The place with its two castles - the Löwenburg and Philippsburg - was destroyed by Swedish troops in 1632 and by French troops in 1689 in the Palatinate War of Succession .

After the Thirty Years' War , an important cloth industry emerged in the place, based on the wool of the large sheep herds of the Eifel . Many half-timbered and quarry stone houses still bear witness to the former prosperity of the Monreal cloth makers.

In the second half of the 19th century, cloth production experienced its decline due to strong international competition. This was fatal for the place, Monreal became impoverished.

Monreal did not recover until the 1930s. It was then that people began to appreciate the charm of the romantic Eifel. The imposing buildings of the cloth makers form an idyllic town center. A testimony to late Gothic stonemasonry can be found on the middle Elzbrücke in Monreal: the lion monument. From the end of the 15th century it was at the gates of the great castle. Because of the four lions that "guarded" the entrance to the castle, the large castle was later also called "Löwenburg".

In connection with the historical testimonies, Monreal tries to bring the history of the place closer to the numerous visitors. In 2003/2004, information boards with information on the history and use of the buildings were therefore attached to many historical buildings.

Population development

The development of the population of Monreal, the values from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

Population development in Monreal from 1815 to 2017 according to the table below

year	Residents
1815	551
1835	759
1871	653
1905	696
1939	687
1950	842

year	Residents
1961	795
1970	821
1987	886
2005	879
2011	836
2017	782

politics

Municipal council

The municipal council in Monreal consists of twelve council members, who were elected by a majority vote in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary local mayor as chairman. Until 2009, personalized proportional representation took place.

choice	SPD	Flat share 1	Flat share 2	total
2019	Majority vote			12 seats
2014	Majority vote			12 seats
2009	-	7th	5	12 seats
2004	6th	4th	2	12 seats

mayor

André Übener became the local mayor of Monreal on August 13, 2019. In the runoff election on June 16, 2019, he was elected for five years with 50.93% of the vote, after none of the originally three applicants achieved the necessary majority in the direct election on May 26, 2019. André Übener's predecessor was Karl Schmitz, who had not run again after more than eight years in office.

coat of arms

Blazon : "In gold, seven red diamonds (4: 3)."

(Coat of arms of the Counts of Virneburg )

Description of the coat of arms on the VG Vordereifel website reads: "Gold shield with 7 red diamonds."

Attractions

Parish church in Monreal, along the Elzbach
Trinity Church
Monreal 1866, picture by Anton Burger
Elzbach and half-timbered houses
Monreal - castle ruins 1978

Löwenburg and Philippsburg
Catholic Parish Church of the Holy Trinity
Four-gabled house from 1452, restored in 2004

Location Monreal

In 1988 Monreal was the target of an action by the satirical magazine Titanic , the editors of which posed as a team from a production company. They pretended to be looking for a location for a major ZDF series . Without any evidence or special effort, the satirists managed to persuade the mayor and several officials to completely redesign the place - including the demolition of a telephone booth, the clearing of an entire hill and the adjustment of the Löwenburg with a factory facade.

In 2009 Monreal was the first filming location for the German television crime series “ Der Bulle und das Landei ” with Uwe Ochsenknecht and Diana Amft in the leading roles. A total of six episodes of the series have been filmed in Monreal so far and broadcast on the first from 2010 to April 2016 .

At the end of summer 2012, Monreal was the location for the action series “ Alarm für Cobra 11 ”.

traffic

Monreal is on the L 98, which connects to the B 258 and the A 48 .

Monreal station is part of the currently used section of the Eifelquerbahn from Andernach via Mayen to Kaisersesch . The rear section to Gerolstein has been closed since 2013. This railway line has been marketed under the name Lahn-Eifel-Bahn since December 2014 and comprises three lines that reach via Koblenz to Gießen.

Competition "Our village has a future"

The municipality of Monreal took part in the competition " Our village has a future " several times :

District winner in the special class: 1979, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2003;
State winner in the special class: 1990 and 2003
National winner in the 21st national competition: 2004

Born in Monreal

Markus Meurer (* 1959), Outsider Art artist.

literature

Georg Ulrich Großmann (Ed.): Monreal in the Eifel (= reports on house and building research . Volume 7 ). Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-89445-273-0 .
Friedrich Hermes / Karl Müller: home chronicle of Monreal in the Eifel. Monreal 2002.
Achim H. Schmidt: Structural remains of the power striving of the Counts of Virneburg in Monreal / Eifel . In: Olaf Wagener (Ed.): Vmbringt mit starcken turnen, murn (= supplements to Mediaevistik . Volume 15 ). Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-60664-3 , pp. 291-310 .
Wolfgang Schuler: Monreal in the Eifel (= Rheinische Kunststätten. Volume 259). Neuss 1982, ISBN 3-88094-381-8 .

Web links

Commons : Monreal - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).

↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2018 ^{[ Version 2020 is available. ]} . S. 27 (PDF; 2.2 MB).

↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data

^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, city and municipal council elections

^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Vordereifel, Verbandsgemeinde, 19th line of results. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .

↑ Bulletin Vordereifel: Constituent meeting in Monreal. Linus Wittich Medien GmbH, issue 34/2019, accessed on February 15, 2020 .

↑ Description of the coat of arms on the website of the community of Vordereifel

↑ PDF file of Titanic magazine from June 1988 (PDF; 18.3 MB)

↑ The Bull and the Landei, at Fernsehserien.de

↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2