Hillesheim

Hillesheim is the third largest town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the eponymous Verbandsgemeinde, to which it also belongs.

Geography

Location

The town lies almost in the middle, halfway between Cologne and Trier (70 km from the former and 60 km from the latter, as the crow flies), and only 30 km from the Belgian border. Hillesheim lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.

Constituent communities

Hillesheim’s outlying Stadtteile are Niederbettingen and Bolsdorf.

History

Hillesheim is an old market town in the heart of the Eifel dating back more than a thousand years.

On 17 March 1974, the until then self-administering municipalities of Niederbettingen and Bolsdorf were amalgamated with Hillesheim. On 24 October 1993, Hillesheim was granted town rights.

Politics

Town council

Hillesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)

Hillesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde ("collective municipality") in the district Vulkaneifel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Hillesheim.

The Verbandsgemeinde Hillesheim consists of the following Ortsgemeinden ("local municipalities"):

Coordinates: 50°17′35″N 6°40′30″E / 50.293°N 6.675°E / 50.293; 6.675

Hillesheim, Mainz-Bingen

Hillesheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

The municipality belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Rhein-Selz.

Neighbouring municipalities

Hillesheim’s neighbours are Dittelsheim-Heßloch, Dolgesheim, Dorn-Dürkheim, Frettenheim, Gau-Odernheim and Eimsheim.

Constituent communities

Hillesheim has two centres, Ortskern, or municipal core, and Bahnhof, or railway station. In the outlying centre of Bahnhof stands the former railway station once served by the Osthofen–Gau Odernheim line and used together with the neighbouring municipality of Dorn-Dürkheim.

History

In the 13th century, Hillesheim had its first documentary mention, although the laying of the churchtower’s foundation stone has been dated to 1204. In 1387, ownership of Hillesheim was divided up: The Kirchbergteil (Teil means “part” in German) went to Rosenthal Convent at the Donnersberg (“Thunder Mountain”) whereas the Haßlocher Teil remained in Imperial hands. Despite changing ruling relationships in the centuries that followed, the two parts remained apart.