Ormont

Ormont is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, whose seat is in the municipality of Jünkerath.

Name

It is often supposed that Ormont’s name is of French origin (or = “gold”; mont = “mountain”), but this is not so. In the Liber Aureus, the “Golden Book” of the town of Prüm, is a boundary description for the centres of Olzheim and Ormont. Here, the village is called Aurimuncio, in Mediaeval Latin. Nonetheless, this does have the same literal meaning as the supposed French derivation (aurum = “gold”; mons/montem = “mountain”). Either way, therefore, the municipality’s name means “Gold Mountain”.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies at the foot of the Schneifel 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.