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Alsfeld
KNOWLEDGE OF Alsfeld
Alsfeld is a city in the center of Hesse. Large cities nearby are Bad Hersfeld about 39km to the east, Fulda 44km to the southeast, Gießen 52km to the west and Marburg an der Lahn about 43km to the northwest. Alsfeld is located on the upper part of the Schwalm in the northern Vogelsberg Mountains and just to the south of the Knüll Mountains at the western edge of the Alsfeld basin. Different interests group Alsfeld with different regions, but it is easy to find the city right in the heart of Germany.
Alsfeld borders on the following towns, listed here clockwise starting in the North: Willingshausen, Schrecksbach, Ottrau (all Schwalm-Eder County), Breitenbach (Hersfeld-Rotenburg County) and Grebenau, Schwalmtal, Romrod, Kirtorf and Antrifttal (all Vogelsberg County).
In addition to Alsfeld (proper) the city includes the following boroughs: Altenburg, Angenrod, Berfa, Billertshausen, Eifa, Elbenrod, Eudorf, Fischbach, Hattendorf, Heidelbach, Leusel, Liederbach, Lingelbach, Münch-Leusel, Reibertenrod and Schwabenrod.
In the 5th century the Huns under Attila came through the region around Alsfeld as the higher than average occurrance of the Mongolian spot around Alsfeld evidences to this day.
Alsfeld was first mentioned in an official document in 1069. Excavations in the Walpurgiskirche have discovered that a Roman church existed here already in the 9th and 10th centuries. It is therefore estimated that the town was founded in Carolingian times. Between 1180 and 1190 the Counts of Thuringia built a castle along the historic trading route of the Kurze Hessen. That location favored the development of Alsfeld and it was subsequently documented as a city as early as 1222.
Since 1247 Alsfeld has been part of Hesse and in 1254 the city joined the Rheinische Städtebund. Hermann II built himself a castle here in 1695 and periodically turned the city into his official residence. Since 1567 Alsfeld belonged to Hesse-Marburg and from 1604 on to Hesse-Darmstadt. Until 1972 it was the seat of Alsfeld County until the county was merged with neighboring Lauterbach County and the Schotten region into present day Vogelsberg County. At that time, the decision to designate Lauterbach as seat of the new county led to bitterness in Alsfeld that put a damper on the relationship between the two cities for years. This went so far that because of protests in and around Alsfeld the motor vehicles registration office in Alsfeld, for instance, wouldn't issue license plates with the code "LAT" (for Lauterbach) and instead continued to issue plates sporting the code "ALS" for Alsfeld until 1978 when the license plate code "VB" was agreed on for the entire County of Vogelsberg.
One of the many legends about how Alsfeld came to its name and location goes as follows: Around 1200 the Margrave of Hesse/Thuringia went riding his horse over the Vogelsberg. When he got to the Homberg (a hill near Alsfeld) a very strong wind was blowing. Supposedly at this point the Margrave said: "Als fällt mir der Hut vom Kopp." (trans. I keep losing my hat.) The "Als fällt" in that statement supposedly became the name "Alsfeld".
The city is known for its Altstadt, or historic center of town, featuring uninterrupted blocks of historic buildings. The Altstadt has a rather typical layout for a medieval city. The market place is the center around which, at some distance, the city wall was built in an almost perfect circle( for strategic reasons). The wall has gated openings where even older roads lead into town. From the city gates the roads lead mostly straight to the center of town and from there back out. In Alsfeld, the location of the city wall remains imaginable from the small and crammed streets that have not been modified to accommodate regional and long distance travelers and transport. The bends and curves in those small streets follow the original city wall and are quite pictoresque throughout the year.
City Hall was constructed in medieval, Rähmbau style timber framing from 1512 through 1516 and is located adjacent to the market place in the center of the Altstadt. Its ground floor, constructed from solid rock, used to also be used as a market hall.
Near City Hall is located the Weinhaus, on the corner of which is located the Pranger. In Alsfeld the Pranger is a lockable iron collar that those who violated medieval rules were locked into. The real or presumed violators then had to suffer the verbal and even physical abuse of their fellow citizens without any means to defend themselves. The Pranger is one of the favorite objects to photograph for many Alsfeld visitors. The "Wine House" was built in 1538 by Hans von Frankfurt with a Staffelgiebel (i.e., a gable that ascends to the tip of the roof in a stair fashion rather than a smooth line) to be the city's wine storage and distribution facility. It's original windows were modified in 1840.
Leaning up against the Weinhaus is the oldest timber framed house in Alsfeld. It was built in Ständerbau style beginning in 1350 and then expanded and again modified in 1403 and 1464. Underneath the house are two cellars with barrel vaults that date back to the time when the city was founded.
The Walpurgiskirche is located behind these three buildings. It was built in the second half of the 13th century. The church choir was built in 1393, the tower was rebuilt in 1394 after an earlier collapse. It was not finished until 1543 however and reduced by one floor in 1836. The gothic long house was remodeled into a church nave from 1472 on. The extensive stained glas art in the church was created in 1963 by Charles Crodel.
The late gothic Beinhaus is located in the immediate vicinity of the Walpurgiskirche. The ossuary was first mentioned in 1368, expanded in 1510 and served as the final resting place of human skeletal remains.
The Dreifaltigkeitskirche was built as an Augustinian cloister chapel around 1435 with two assymetric naves. As is customary in churches built for Begging orders, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche does not have a steeple. Again, the stained glass windows were fashioned by Charles Crodel in 1962 and 1963.
Only a small piece of the city wall remains together with the Leonhardsturm (Leonard's Tower). The tower was one of the gate towers built as part of the city fortifications in 1386.
Alsfeld borders on the following towns, listed here clockwise starting in the North: Willingshausen, Schrecksbach, Ottrau (all Schwalm-Eder County), Breitenbach (Hersfeld-Rotenburg County) and Grebenau, Schwalmtal, Romrod, Kirtorf and Antrifttal (all Vogelsberg County).
In addition to Alsfeld (proper) the city includes the following boroughs: Altenburg, Angenrod, Berfa, Billertshausen, Eifa, Elbenrod, Eudorf, Fischbach, Hattendorf, Heidelbach, Leusel, Liederbach, Lingelbach, Münch-Leusel, Reibertenrod and Schwabenrod.
In the 5th century the Huns under Attila came through the region around Alsfeld as the higher than average occurrance of the Mongolian spot around Alsfeld evidences to this day.
Alsfeld was first mentioned in an official document in 1069. Excavations in the Walpurgiskirche have discovered that a Roman church existed here already in the 9th and 10th centuries. It is therefore estimated that the town was founded in Carolingian times. Between 1180 and 1190 the Counts of Thuringia built a castle along the historic trading route of the Kurze Hessen. That location favored the development of Alsfeld and it was subsequently documented as a city as early as 1222.
Since 1247 Alsfeld has been part of Hesse and in 1254 the city joined the Rheinische Städtebund. Hermann II built himself a castle here in 1695 and periodically turned the city into his official residence. Since 1567 Alsfeld belonged to Hesse-Marburg and from 1604 on to Hesse-Darmstadt. Until 1972 it was the seat of Alsfeld County until the county was merged with neighboring Lauterbach County and the Schotten region into present day Vogelsberg County. At that time, the decision to designate Lauterbach as seat of the new county led to bitterness in Alsfeld that put a damper on the relationship between the two cities for years. This went so far that because of protests in and around Alsfeld the motor vehicles registration office in Alsfeld, for instance, wouldn't issue license plates with the code "LAT" (for Lauterbach) and instead continued to issue plates sporting the code "ALS" for Alsfeld until 1978 when the license plate code "VB" was agreed on for the entire County of Vogelsberg.
One of the many legends about how Alsfeld came to its name and location goes as follows: Around 1200 the Margrave of Hesse/Thuringia went riding his horse over the Vogelsberg. When he got to the Homberg (a hill near Alsfeld) a very strong wind was blowing. Supposedly at this point the Margrave said: "Als fällt mir der Hut vom Kopp." (trans. I keep losing my hat.) The "Als fällt" in that statement supposedly became the name "Alsfeld".
The city is known for its Altstadt, or historic center of town, featuring uninterrupted blocks of historic buildings. The Altstadt has a rather typical layout for a medieval city. The market place is the center around which, at some distance, the city wall was built in an almost perfect circle( for strategic reasons). The wall has gated openings where even older roads lead into town. From the city gates the roads lead mostly straight to the center of town and from there back out. In Alsfeld, the location of the city wall remains imaginable from the small and crammed streets that have not been modified to accommodate regional and long distance travelers and transport. The bends and curves in those small streets follow the original city wall and are quite pictoresque throughout the year.
City Hall was constructed in medieval, Rähmbau style timber framing from 1512 through 1516 and is located adjacent to the market place in the center of the Altstadt. Its ground floor, constructed from solid rock, used to also be used as a market hall.
Near City Hall is located the Weinhaus, on the corner of which is located the Pranger. In Alsfeld the Pranger is a lockable iron collar that those who violated medieval rules were locked into. The real or presumed violators then had to suffer the verbal and even physical abuse of their fellow citizens without any means to defend themselves. The Pranger is one of the favorite objects to photograph for many Alsfeld visitors. The "Wine House" was built in 1538 by Hans von Frankfurt with a Staffelgiebel (i.e., a gable that ascends to the tip of the roof in a stair fashion rather than a smooth line) to be the city's wine storage and distribution facility. It's original windows were modified in 1840.
Leaning up against the Weinhaus is the oldest timber framed house in Alsfeld. It was built in Ständerbau style beginning in 1350 and then expanded and again modified in 1403 and 1464. Underneath the house are two cellars with barrel vaults that date back to the time when the city was founded.
The Walpurgiskirche is located behind these three buildings. It was built in the second half of the 13th century. The church choir was built in 1393, the tower was rebuilt in 1394 after an earlier collapse. It was not finished until 1543 however and reduced by one floor in 1836. The gothic long house was remodeled into a church nave from 1472 on. The extensive stained glas art in the church was created in 1963 by Charles Crodel.
The late gothic Beinhaus is located in the immediate vicinity of the Walpurgiskirche. The ossuary was first mentioned in 1368, expanded in 1510 and served as the final resting place of human skeletal remains.
The Dreifaltigkeitskirche was built as an Augustinian cloister chapel around 1435 with two assymetric naves. As is customary in churches built for Begging orders, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche does not have a steeple. Again, the stained glass windows were fashioned by Charles Crodel in 1962 and 1963.
Only a small piece of the city wall remains together with the Leonhardsturm (Leonard's Tower). The tower was one of the gate towers built as part of the city fortifications in 1386.
Louis