Heilbad Heiligenstadt


Heilbad Heiligenstadt is a spa town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Eichsfeld district.
WWW heilbad-heiligenstadt.de

Geography

Heiligenstadt is approximately 14 km east of the tripoint where the states of Thuringia, Hesse and Lower Saxony meet. It lies on the upper course of the river Leine that flows through the town from east to west and is joined near the centre of the town by the Geislede.
South of the town is the Iberg, a 453.2 m tall peak located in the Heiligenstadt Stadtwald, which forms part of the Naturpark Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal.

Local subdivisions

The municipality of Heilbad Heiligenstadt consists of the central town and the following villages :

History

Historical Population

Population :

Name of the town

Despite the official designation of the town as a spa in 1929 and a 1950 decision by the town council to append the word Soleheilbad to its name, it remained officially "Heiligenstadt" during the East German years. In 1990 the city government still used only Heiligenstadt.
However, the post office used Heilbad Heiligenstadt, as did postcard companies and the local savings bank. In fact between 1950 and 1990, the town had the distinction of being referred to in three different ways: as Heiligenstadt, Heilbad Heiligenstadt, or Heiligenstadt .
In 1990, the town council and especially the mayor began expanding the spa business and it took on increasing importance. In addition, after German reunification, there were several Heiligenstadts in Germany. Initially the government declined to rename the town Heilbad Heiligenstadt because of a lack of evidence that it was a spa, but the town lodged an appeal and used the one and a half years before an official visit and the relative lack of oversight immediately after reunification to create spa facilities and integrate the word Heilbad into official usage. Permission for the renaming was then granted since the town was evidently a spa and using that name.

Culture and sights

Theatre

  • Eichsfeld Kulturhaus

Museums

Buildings and monuments

  • Mainz Schloss, seat of the administrator for Eichsfeld when it was a dominion of the Archbishopric of Mainz
  • Klausmühle Einheitsdenkmal German Unity Monument in front of the town administration building, 2009

Churches and chapels

  • St. Aegidius, also known as the Neustädter Kirche : begun in the 13th century
  • St. Mary's, also known as the Altstädter Kirche, Liebfrauenkirche and Propsteikirche : a 14th-century monastic foundation which replaced a 13th-century Romanesque building
  • St. Anne's chapel, possibly built as an ossuary, facing the north portico of St. Mary's
  • St. Martin's, also known as the Bergkirche
  • Monastery of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and St. Gerhard's church, also known as the Paterkloster
  • St. Nicholas', also known as the Klausbergkirche
  • Klöppelsklus
  • Convent of the Sisters of Mary Magdalene Postel, with convent church and school church

Cemeteries

  • The Jewish cemetery in Ibergstraße was last used for burial in 1940. The deportation of six Jewish residents to Theresienstadt concentration camp in September 1942 put an end to a Jewish community in the town which was first mentioned in writing in 1212 and which had built a synagogue and their own school in the 19th century.
  • The Soviet cemetery and monument in Dingelstädter Straße commemorate 70 Soviet prisoners of war and impressed workers who died in the town due to forced labour during World War II.

Parks

Regular events

Heiligenstadt, like the rest of Eichsfeld, is traditionally Roman Catholic, so there are several annual religious events, in particular the procession through the old town on Palm Sunday with life-size figures from the Passion of Christ, which attracts numerous believers from the region and the rest of Germany.

Ibergrennen

The Ibergrennen is an annual road race held since 1994 on the last weekend in June on Landesstraße 2022 in the western foothills of the Iberg. Sponsored by the German Mountain Cup and German Mountain Championship, it has included sports and touring cars since 1998, when the road surface was renewed and the barriers reinforced. In 2000, the course was extended from 1.96 km to 2.05 km. The climb remains 200 m. It is thus one of the shortest mountain race routes in Germany, but not without challenges.
The drivers' encampment is traditionally set up near the centre of Heiligenstadt, next to a filling station and a supermarket which is open on Sundays.
The first race was held in 1925, but only for motorcycles.

People associated with Heilbad Heiligenstadt

Honorary citizens

  • Johann Vinzenz Wolf, Jesuit historian
  • 1991: Hugo Dornhofer, Christian labour union official and CDU politician

Natives

Others