Wiesenbach (Sankt Vith)

Wiesenbach
Wiesenbach
State :	Belgium
Region :	Wallonia
Province :	Liege
District :	Verviers
Municipality :	Saint Vith
Coordinates :	50 ° 16 '  N , 6 ° 8'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 16 '  N , 6 ° 8'  E
Residents:	37 pop.
Height:	450  m
Post Code:	4783
Prefix:	080
Website:	www.st.vith.be

Wiesenbach (Sankt Vith) is a Belgian town. Together with Breitfeld, it forms the Breitfeld-Wiesenbach village community within the municipality of Sankt Vith . Until 1976 it was part of the then independent municipality of Lommersweiler . 37 people live in Wiesenbach (as of December 31, 2015).

location

Wiesenbach is located at the transition from the Ardennes to the West Eifel in the valley of the Wiesenbach, a tributary of the Braunlaufs , at an altitude of about 450  m OP The center of Sankt Vith is about two kilometers north and the small neighboring town of Neidingen 2 km south.

history

A settlement of the region already in pre-Christian times by the Celts, but at the latest by the Romans is assumed, since (here too) the course of the Via Mansuerisca is assumed to be the settlement axis . So far, however, these assumptions have not been substantiated either by archaeological excavations or by historical sources.

The place initially belonged to the Luxembourgish county Vianden in the Holy Roman Empire (German Nations) . In the centuries that followed, the region and thus also Wiesenbach belonged to the House of Nassau from 1405 (or 1417, different sources) and from 1433 to the Burgundian Netherlands (first House of Burgundy , from 1477 Habsburg ), but remained a Luxembourg fief . In 1555 the region became part of the Spanish Netherlands and after the War of the Spanish Succession through the peace treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt (1713 and 1714) the area went to Austria and was henceforth part of the Austrian Netherlands . After the Battle of Fleurus (1794) and the victory of the French Revolutionary Army , the region was under French administration and in 1795 was assigned to the Ourthe department.

On February 17, 1800, Wiesenbach and the surrounding towns were incorporated into the newly founded and independent local community of Lommersweiler based on a decree by the French government, the main town of which was also the seat of the Mairie . In addition to the main town, it also included the locations and hamlets of Alftersteg (partially), Atzerath , Breitfeld , Dreihütten , Galhausen , Heuem , Mackenbach , Neidingen , Setz , Schlierbach , Steinebrück , Weppeler and Wiesenbach . The community of Lommersweiler had 1067 inhabitants in 1885 and 1265 in 1930.

In 1815, after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo , Lommersweiler came to Prussia ( Rhine Province ) in the German Confederation through the Congress of Vienna and, from 1871, to the German Empire . From 1816 the local community belonged to the district of Sankt Vith , which was incorporated into the district of Malmedy in 1821 (both districts in the administrative district of Aachen ). After the First World War , the Eupen-Malmedy region was initially only provisionally incorporated into Belgium in 1920 due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty and finally after the controversial referendum held in 1920 in 1925.

During the Second World War , Belgium was invaded by the German Wehrmacht in 1940 . The East Belgian territories were annexed by National Socialist Germany and remained in German hands until they were liberated as a result of the defeats and the withdrawal of German troops after the failed Ardennes offensive in the winter of 1944/45. Since then, Lommersweiler and Wiesenbach have belonged (again) to Belgium, which was also recognized by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1956 through a bilateral treaty that regards the existing national borders as "immovable" .

On January 1, 1977, the formerly independent municipality of Lommersweiler, together with the previously independent municipalities of Crombach , Recht and Schönberg, became part of the newly formed large municipality of Sankt Vith as part of the merger of Belgian municipalities .

Today the municipalities of East Belgium have a not insignificant autonomy in a number of areas within the German-speaking community in Belgium.

The Saint Bartholomew Chapel near Saint Vith

Saint Bartholomew Chapel

→ Main article : Chapel of Saint Bartholomew

The history of the place is closely connected with the St. Bartholomew Chapel , which is both the most important sight in Wiesenbach and at the same time one of the most culturally and historically important buildings in the city of Sankt Vith.

The chapel, built in the 9th century, is the oldest cultural heritage in St. Vither Land. It was first mentioned in a document in 876, has been a listed building since 1937 and formed the nucleus of the small town. It is not known whether a settlement already existed here at that time or whether it was founded in the following years. A manor named Wison-Bronna is mentioned in a contract from the year 915 .

Infrastructure

Breitfeld Viaduct between St. Vith and Lommersweiler

Immediately south of the village runs the Belgian A 27 motorway with the next junctions Sankt Vith-Süd (No. 15) and Lommersweiler (No. 16), between which the Breitfeld Viaduct near the village spans the Braunlauf valley. East of the border on German territory, the motorway changes to the A 60 ( European route 42 ) Lüttich  - Verviers  - Sankt Vith - Prüm  - Bitburg  - Wittlich .

The N 62 ( Europastraße 421 ) leads a few kilometers west of Wiesenbach, while the Landstraße (Provinzialstraße 646) with the name Wiesenbachstraße and in the further course Wiesenstraße from Sankt Vith via Lommersweiler and further towards Burg-Reuland and Winterspelt forms the main traffic axis of the village .

By the place formerly ran the disused for decades and now again degraded path of Vennbahn that resulted in the northern part of St. Vith to the separation station Lommersweiler. The branches separating here led as a section of the Vennbahn via Reuland to Troisvierges in Luxembourg with a connection to the Luxembourg – Spa railway or as Westeifelbahn to Germany via Bleialf , Pronsfeld and Prüm to Gerolstein on the Eifel route .

The Eifel-Ardennes cycle path from St. Vith via Gerolstein to the Nürburgring with connections to further long-distance cycle paths was created on sections of the Westeifelbahn .

In addition to restaurants and accommodation, there is also a campsite with an attached outdoor pool, which is also accessible to other visitors for a fee.

Remarks

1. ↑ In some maps this brook can also be found as Prümerbach (not to be confused with the Prümer Bach in Germany, also an indirect tributary of the Our), in the Géoportail de la Wallonie , Service public de Wallonie (SPW) ( notes ) are also alternative names Werelsbach and Prümelbach indicated. The brook is a confluence of the Werelsbach and Walleroder Bach.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ residents of the community of ST. VITH per location. (PDF) (No longer available online.) City of St. Vith, December 31, 2015, archived from the original on February 12, 2016 ; accessed on February 12, 2016 . 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.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} The municipality of Sankt Vith. (PDF) (No longer available online.) St. Vith, February 2, 2015, pp. 4–9 , archived from the original on October 30, 2011 ; Retrieved July 27, 2015 (History of the City). 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.  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} History. In: The municipality. St. Vith, accessed July 27, 2015 . 
4. ↑ From the chronicle of our village. In: Lommersweiler and its history. Lommersweiler, accessed July 27, 2015 . 
5. ^ Michael Rademacher: Communities in the Malmedy district . In: German History 1871–1945 . 2006 ( online [accessed on July 27, 2015] Dissertation ( University of Osnabrück )).
6. ↑ Joseph Dries: Wiesenbach - Geschichtliches. (No longer available online.) In: Gemeindedörfer. St. Vith, November 2003, archived from the original on June 22, 2015 ; accessed on July 27, 2015 . 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.  
7. ↑ Eifel-Ardennes-Hohes Venn-Radwanderweg. In: cycling. City of Prüm, accessed on July 27, 2015 . 
8. ^ Railroad cycling in Belgium. Achim Bartoschek, July 15, 2015, accessed on July 27, 2015 (private website). 
9. ↑ Our swimming pool. (No longer available online.) ST.VITH sports and leisure center, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on July 27, 2015 . 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.