Ellwangen an der Jagst, officially Ellwangen (Jagst), in common use simply Ellwangen is a town in the district of Ostalbkreis in the east of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated about 17 km north of Aalen.
Ellwangen has 25,000 inhabitants.
Geography
Ellwangen is situated in the valley of river Jagst, between the foothills of Swabian Alb and Virngrund (ancient Virgundia) forest, the latter being part of the Swabian-Franconian Forest. The Jagst runs through Ellwangen from south to north.
History
The town developed in the 7th century as an alemanic settlement in the Virgunna forest next to the Franconian-Swabian border. In 764 French nobles Hariolf and Erlolf (the latter bishop of Langres in France) founded a benedictine monastery, Ellwangen Abbey, on a hill next to the settlement. The monastery was mentioned in a document of Louis the Pious as Elehenuuwang in 814. It became a Reichsabtei in 817.
From 870 to 873 the Byzantine Greek "apostle of the slaws" Saint Methodius was imprisoned in Ellwangen, after he had been arrested by Ermanrich, bishop of Passau. He was set free in 873 thanks to an intervention of Pope John VIII.
The monastery was "exempt" from 1124 on (maybe earlier), which means it was directly responsible to the pope. The Abbots got Reichsfreiheit in 1215. The office of the Vogt was first held by the counts of Oettingen, from 1370 on by the counts of Württemberg. In 1460 the abbey was converted into an exempt secular "Chorherrenstift", led by a prince-provost and a "Stiftskapitel" (12 noble canons, 10 vicars ). First its territory included the districts Ellwangen, Tannenberg and Kochenburg. The district Rötlen was acquired in 1471, Wasseralfingen in 1545, Heuchlingen in 1609.
In 1588 and from 1611 to 1618 about 450 people in Ellwangen were killed in witch-hunts.
After German Mediatisation Ellwangen became in 1802 a part of the duchy of Württemberg. First it was government seat of Neuwürttemberg, the territories Württemberg had acquired by mediatisation. In 1803 the town became center of a district (Oberamt), which was in 1806 included into the new Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1807 Ellwangen became seat of the Jagstkreis (Jagst District), until the district was merged into a larger unit in 1924. The king of Württemberg, who had acquired large areas with a predominantly roman-catholic population, wanted Ellwangen to become seat of a Roman-Catholic diocese. To achieve this, he founded in Ellwangen in 1812 an ordinary and a seminary as well as a Roman-catholic theological faculty. The faculty was soon moved to Tübingen, where it became part of Eberhard Karls University. The seminary and the ordinary went in 1817 to Rottenburg am Neckar, that became in 1821 seat of the new-formed diocese for Württemberg.
During World War II, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp was located here.[1]
Buildings
Sights of the city are the medieval town centre with its churches. Also well known are the Baroque pilgrimage church "Schoenenberg" and the castle, both on hills near to the city.
Ellwangen Basilica:[1]
Schoenenberg:[2]
Twin towns
External links
References
- ^ glosk.com/GM/Linde/17283/pages/List_of_subcamps_of_Dachau/84737_en.htm
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![[1]](http://www.limesstrasse.de/Ellwangen/basilika.jpg){kind=link}
![[2]](http://www.exerzitien.info/addes-bilder/b1122.jpg){kind=link}
