Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg is a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He ...

of about 4,000 inhabitants (as of 2004) in the Bad Kreuznach

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Since 1 July 2014, it is part of the town Bad Kreuznach. It was the seat of the former like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', but not part of it. Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg was granted town rights on 29 April 1978Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis 2006
, Seiten 170 und 203 (PDF; 2,6 MB) and is recognized as a mineral spring spa (''Mineralheilbad'') and a climatic spa (''heilklimatischer Kurort''). Today the "Spa" is famous for its clinics specializing in cardiological and orthopaedic rehabilitation. The many

graduation tower A graduation tower (occasionally referred to as a thorn house) is a structure used in the production of salt which removes water from a saline solution by evaporation, increasing its concentration of mineral salts. The tower consists of a wood ...

s form the largest open air inhalatorium in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Geography

Location

Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg lies between 108 and 320 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

at the foot of Castle Ebernburg in a region of low mountains with forests and

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...

s framed by craggy massifs of the Rheingrafenstein and the Rotenfels and also by the river Nahe. The two rock formations in question, which lie across the river, are the highest north of the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, rising more than 200 m from the river bank. The town lies 6 km south of Bad Kreuznach and 50 km southwest of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

. The municipal area measures 9.53 km². The greatest extent of

s in Germany (roughly 1.4 km) stretches through the Salinental ("Saltworks Dale") from the neighbouring town of Bad Kreuznach to Bad Münster's spa zone.

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg's neighbours are the municipality of Traisen, the town of Bad Kreuznach, the municipality of

Altenbamberg Altenbamberg is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bad Kreuzn ...

, the municipality of

Feilbingert Feilbingert is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bad Kreuzna ...

, the municipality of

Niederhausen Niederhausen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Rüdeshe ...

and the municipality of

Norheim Norheim (in the local speech ''Norem'') is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verb ...

Constituent communities

Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg's '' Stadtteile'' are Bad Münster am Stein and Ebernburg. They were merged into one municipality in 1969, and the new, greater municipality was raised to town in 1978.

History

Today's town of Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg was newly formed on 7 June 1969 within the framework of the administrative and territorial reform begun in Rhineland-Palatinate in the late 1960s from the hitherto self-administering municipalities of Bad Münster (2,261 inhabitants) and Ebernburg (1,671 inhabitants) under the name of the municipality of "Bad Münster-Ebernburg". However, the new municipality only bore this name for a matter of months before it was changed to "Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg" on 1 November 1969. Town rights were granted on 29 April 1978. While Bad Münster belonged from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

to the Knights of Löwenstein and the Rhinegraves, and after

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

was driven out, to

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

’s Rhine Province (under the terms laid out by the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

) from 1815 to 1945, Ebernburg belonged throughout the Middle Ages to a whole succession of lords from the Counts of Saarbrücken to the Counts of Leiningen, the

Raugraves The Raugraves were a German noble family, which had its center of influence in the former Nahegau. They descended from the Emichones (Counts of Nahegau). History First family in the 12th until 15th centuries The family of the Raugraves (the ...

, the Counts of Sponheim, the

Counts of Veldenz The County Palatine of Veldenz was a principality in the contemporary Land Rhineland-Palatinate with full voting rights to the Reichstag. The county was located partially between Kaiserslautern, Sponheim and Zweibrücken, partially on the Mose ...

Electoral Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...

and the Lords of Sickingen before the Revolutionary, later Napoleonic, French took over. After Napoleonic times, Ebernburg belonged (again, under the terms laid out by the Congress of Vienna) to the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

, and after the German Revolution to the Free State of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and was that state’s northernmost municipality, lying in Bavaria’s new exclave in the Palatinate. The two constituent communities’ separate histories may no longer live on politically, but they are still reflected in ecclesiastical administration, with Bad Münster belonging to the

Evangelical Church in the Rhineland Protestant Church in the Rhineland (german: Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland; EKiR) is a United Protestant church body in parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Hesse (Wetzlar). This is actually th ...

and the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier The Diocese of Trier, in English historically also known as ''Treves'' ( IPA "tɾivz") from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.Evangelical Church of the Palatinate Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (german: Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz (Protestantische Landeskirche)) is a United Protestant church in parts of the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, endorsing both Lutheran and Calvinist o ...

and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer.

Bad Münster am Stein

About 1200, Münster had its first documentary mention. The village was founded below Rheingrafenstein Castle, built in 1050, which was the seat of the

Count Palatine of the Rhine The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...

. The castle was destroyed in 1689 by the French, but the ruins remain. Until the 19th century it was a village with only a few houses around the old Saint Martin's

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

(''St.-Martins-Kirche''). The people busied themselves with running saltworks, fishing on the Nahe,

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

and for a time,

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

in the Huttental (dale). In 1859, the

Nahe Valley Railway The Nahe Valley Railway (german: Nahetalbahn) is a two-track, partially electrified main line railway in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which runs for almost 100 kilometres along the Nahe. It was built by the Rhine-Nahe R ...

( Bingen– Saarbrücken) was built, and in 1871 another

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, the

Alsenz Valley Railway The Alsenz Valley Railway (german: Alsenztalbahn) is a line that runs from Hochspeyer via Winnweiler and Alsenz to Bad Munster am Stein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The line closely follows the Alsenz river from the Enkenbach ...

(''Alsenztalbahn''), which made it possible for the village's spa facilities, which had been established as far back as 1478, to experience a decisive upswing into a much visited spa centre, allowing the village to acquire the designation "Bad" (literally "bath") in 1905. The basis for all this is to this day the brine springs whose water contains

radon Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...

. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the area around the railway bridge going towards the Salinental was partly destroyed in many Allied air raids. Today, Bad Münster still has a railway link, lying as it does on the Bingen– Kaiserslautern and

–Saarbrücken lines. In the post-war years, the centre has undergone a thorough change in appearance owing to the expansion of the spa infrastructure.

Ebernburg

Ebernburg was from the

an important village with a long tradition of

winegrowing Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. Its first documentary mention goes back to 1212 when the Counts of Saarbrücken donated the church at Ebernburg to the

Saint Cyriacus Cyriacus ( el, Ἅγιος Κυριακός, fl. 303 AD), sometimes Anglicized as Cyriac, according to Christian tradition, is a Christian martyr who was killed in the Diocletianic Persecution. He is one of twenty-seven saints, most of them mart ...

Foundation near

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...

. Both the village and the like-named castle originally lay elsewhere, although it is still unknown where this was, although perhaps it was around "Old Saint John the Baptist’s Church" (''Alte Johannes-Kirche''). In 1338, Raugrave Ruprecht and Count Johann of Sponheim-Kreuznach took it upon themselves to build the castle and the town on the site where they still stand today. It was then even envisaged to raise Ebernburg to town, but this did not come about. The old village core, the ''Altdorf'' ("Old Village"), which can still be made out as part of the centre's appearance even now, was for centuries ringed by a wall linked to Castle Ebernburg. The castle was eventually the residence of the famous German knight Franz von Sickingen. After major expansion works at the castle beginning in 1482, the castle and the village itself were burnt down by princes who were allied against Franz von Sickingen in 1523. Reconstruction began under Franz's sons in 1542. As early as the beginning of the spa business in the late 19th century, Ebernburg underwent a quick expansion outside these walls, which is still not quite over. About the turn of the 20th century, therefore, the walls were torn down, and all that is left now is the foundation of one tower. Castle Ebernburg was partly destroyed during the

but has bee
reconstructed since (German Link)
For the past 40 years it has been in use as an adult and yout
education centre (German Link)

Religion

As at 31 August 2013, there are 4,033 full-time residents in Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg, and of those, 1,582 are

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

(39.226%), 1,249 are

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(30.97%), 10 are

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

(0.248%), 6 are

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

(0.149%), 2 are

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

(0.05%), 1 belongs to the Palatinate State Free Religious Community (0.025%), 2 belong to the Bad Kreuznach-Koblenz

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

worship community, 163 (4.042%) belong to other religious groups and 1,018 (25.242%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.

Politics

Town council

The former council was made up of 20 council members, who were elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairwoman. It was incorporated into Bad Kreuznach on 1 July 2014. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results: Voter turnout at the 2009 elections was 51.1%. Owing to the peculiarities in the

electoral system as it pertains to municipal elections (personalized proportional representation), the percentages given in the table above are presented as "weighted results", which can only reflect the voting relations arithmetically.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: ''In Schwarz mit eingeschweifter silberner Spitze, darin ein wachsender konischer roter Rundturm mit vorkragendem vierzinnigem Kranz und zwei schwarzen Scharten, vorne fünf silberne Kugeln 2:1:2 gestellt, hinten ein steigender goldbekronter und rotbezungter silberner Löwe.'' The town's

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

might in English

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

language be described thus: Tierced in mantle dexter sable five roundles in saltire argent, sinister sable a lion rampant of the second crowned Or and langued gules, issuant from base argent a tower embattled gules with two arrowslits in pale of the first. The

quincunx A quincunx () is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center. The same pattern has other names, including "in saltire" or "in cross" in heraldry (d ...

and the tower were both

charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

s found in Ebernburg's coat of arms before the 1969 amalgamation, the former being an heraldic device once borne by the Lords of Sickingen, who once held the local area, and the latter being a representation of the local Castle Ebernburg, which was also held by the Lords of Sickingen. The lion seems to have been drawn from Bad Münster's pre-amalgamation arms and was an heraldic device once borne by the Lords of Löwenstein ("Lion Stone"), who held Münster for several centuries. Both the current centres that make up Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg had their own arms before amalgamation. Ebernburg's arms had a "tierced in mantle"

division of the field In heraldry, the field (background) of a shield can be divided into more than one area, or subdivision, of different tinctures, usually following the lines of one of the ordinaries and carrying its name (e.g. a shield divided in the shape of a c ...

like the combined town's (that is, somewhat resembling a parted coat), but the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) and sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) sides were of different

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

s, with the sinister side in argent (silver). Furthermore, before this official coat of arms was granted in 1967, Ebernburg had borne an unofficial coat of arms with a gold field and the figure of

. Bad Münster's old arms featured a lion rampant in the same tinctures as the lion in the current arms, including the field tincture, but the lion held a fish in each paw, a

canting ' (IPA: , VOS Spelling: ''tjanting'', jv, ꦕꦤ꧀ꦛꦶꦁ, Tjanting) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax ( jv, ) in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely ''batik tulis'' (lit. "written batik"). Traditional '' ...

charge for the Counts of Salm-Salm (''Salm'' being one word in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

for "

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

") who had descended from the Lords of Stein and held "Münster unter Rheingrafenstein" in the 14th century. The arms were also semé of five crosses crosslet (crosses whose ends are also crossed). File:BadMünsterFormerArms.png, Bad Münster's former arms File:EbernburgFormerArms.png, Ebernburg's former official arms File:EbernburgUnapprovedArms.png, Ebernburg's former unofficial arms File:Wappen Bad Muenster am Stein-Ebernburg.png, Merged town's current arms

Town partnerships

Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg fosters partnerships with the following places: *

Pouilly-sur-Loire Pouilly-sur-Loire (, literally ''Pouilly on Loire'') is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France. Pouilly-sur-Loire is a town noted for the white wine known as Pouilly-Fumé Pouilly-Fumé is an ''appellation d'origine contrôl� ...

Nièvre Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

since 1968 *

Landstuhl Landstuhl () is a town in the Kaiserslautern district of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is the seat of ''Verbandsgemeinde Landstuhl'', a kind of "collective municipality." Landstuhl is situated on the north-west edge of the Palatinate F ...

, Kaiserslautern district,

since 1998

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:Directory of Cultural Monuments in Bad Kreuznach district
/ref>

Bad Münster am Stein

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

, Berliner Straße 21 –basilica with

engaged column In architecture, an engaged column is a column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall, sometimes defined as semi- or three-quarter detached. Engaged columns are rarely found in classical Greek architecture, and then ...

s in Hohenstaufen forms, 1907/1908, architect

Otto Kuhlmann Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

; after wartime destruction reconstructed by 1961;

architectural sculpture Architectural sculpture is the use of sculptural techniques by an architect and/or sculptor in the design of a building, bridge, mausoleum or other such project. The sculpture is usually integrated with the structure, but freestanding works that ...

by Lehmann-Borges, Berlin; glass window by Erhard Klonk,

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...

; warriors’ memorial 1914-1918, artificial-stone stele with

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

, 1920s *

Parish Church of the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...

(''Pfarrkirche Maria Himmelfahrt''), Rotenfelser Straße 10 – Gothic Revival

aisleless church An aisleless church (german: Saalkirche) is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated fr ...

, 1900, architect Ludwig Becker * Town centre (monumental zone), Nahestraße 7–23 (odd numbers), 4–26 (even numbers) – core of settlement with buildings from the 17th to 20th centuries, mainly of two-floor construction from the 18th and 19th century * Berliner Straße 20 –

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

; one-floor buildings with hip roofs, partly

timber-frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

, Art Nouveau, about 1900 * Berliner Straße 23 – former

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

; Late

Gründerzeit (; "founders' period") was the economic phase in 19th-century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. In Central Europe, the age of industrialisation had been taking place since the 1840s. That period is not precisely ...

building with hip roof, about 1900 * Berliner Straße 32 – Late Gründerzeit house, about 1900 * Fischerhof 5 – one-floor building with mansard roof, essentially possibly from the 16th century, made over in Baroque in the 18th century * Goetheplatz – "Peace Oak" (''Friedenseiche'') and monument,

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, marked 1872–1912 * Goetheplatz 4/6 – former spa house (''Kurhaus''); three-floor Late Classicist plastered building, third fourth of the 19th century * Kapitän-Lorenz-Ufer 2 – so-called ''Fischerhäuschen'' ("Fishermen’s Hut"); possibly from the late 16th century * Kurhausstraße, ''Kurpark'' ("Spa Park"; monumental zone) – laid out in the 19th century in a bow on the River Nahe below Rheingrafenstein Castle with a bathhouse and a spa treatment house, former saltworks administration building,

s, Gründerzeit concert stage, about 1880; bronze

figure Figure may refer to: General *A shape, drawing, depiction, or geometric configuration *Figure (wood), wood appearance *Figure (music), distinguished from musical motif *Noise figure, in telecommunication *Dance figure, an elementary dance pattern ...

, possibly from the 1930s,

watertower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conjunc ...

* Kurhausstraße 1/3 – two-part Late Classicist shophouse, late 19th century or about 1900 * Kurhausstraße 5 – Baroque timber-frame house, plastered and slated, 17th/18th century * Kurhausstraße 14 – ''Villa Schöneck''; Late Historicist building, partly timber-frame, Art Nouveau influence, about 1905 * At Kurhausstraße 25 – bathhouse and spa treatment house; two- or three-floor timber-frame buildings, Baroquified Art Nouveau, 1911, architect Robert Muehlbach,

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

, with collaboration from Ackermann * At Kurhausstraße 25 – former saltworks administration building; two-part Late Baroque timber-frame building, marked 1781 * At Kurhausstraße 25 – watertower, standing between the bathhouse and the Nahe, eight-sided timber-frame construction, possibly from the late 19th century * Kurhausstraße 41 –

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

; building with mansard roof,

clinker brick Clinker bricks are partially-vitrified bricks used in the construction of buildings. Clinker bricks are produced when wet clay bricks are exposed to excessive heat during the firing process, sintering the surface of the brick and forming a shin ...

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

, about 1890 * Lindenallee 3 – former Hotel Central; three-floor Late Gründerzeit building, about 1900 * Lindenallee 11 –

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

/ pension; Late Classicist building, about 1870 * Nahestraße 10 – timber-frame house, 1777 (?), heavily restored * Nahestraße 21 – tower of the former Evangelical church (formerly Saint Martin's), mentioned in 1435, preserved, since 1911 stair tower of the Evangelical community hall, Heimatstil; in the gateway arch a volute stone, 18th century; gravestone, 1784; Early Classicist monumental stone; Baroque gravestone fragment * Nahestraße 23 – ''Haus Berlin''; Late Classicist house, third fourth of the 19th century * Nahestraße 24 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, mid 18th century * Nahestraße 28 – so-called ''Fischerhäuschen'' ("Fishermen’s Hut"), timber-frame bungalow with high pedestal, possibly from the late 16th century, gateway complex, 18th or early 19th century * Naheweinstraße 6 – stately villa, Heimatstil, about 1900/1910 * Rheingrafenstein Castle ruin, southeast of town – about 1050, blown up in 1688, from 1721 a quarry, development 1978–1982 File:Bahnhof Bad Münster.jpg, Berliner Straße 20: railway station File:Kurhaus Bad Münster.jpg, Kurhausstraße 25: bathhouse and spa treatment house File:Burg rheingrafenstein.JPG, Rheingrafenstein Castle ruin

Ebernburg

* Saint John the Baptist's

Parish

(''Pfarrkirche St. Johannes der Täufer''), Schloßgartenstraße –

, Heimatstil with Art Nouveau motifs, 1915–1918, architects Karl Marschall, Göllheim, and August Greifzu, Ludwigshafen; nearby the rectory, 1916–1918 *

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, Friedhofstraße 5 – ''Alte Johannes-Kirche'' ("Old Saint John the Baptist’s Church"), essentially thought to be a Romanesque aisleless church, 12th century, west tower latter half of the 13th century; in the churchyard Baroque gravestones, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, warriors’ memorial 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 * Berliner Straße 77 – former

, so-called ''Künstlerbahnhof'' ("Artists’ Station"), Late Classicist

-block building, about 1880 * Burgstraße 1 – Late Baroque estate complex, marked 1780 * Burgstraße 2 – Baroque house, 18th century * Burgstraße 9 – former Catholic rectory; Late Baroque solid building, 1776 * Burgstraße 13 – former ''Amtshaus''; four-wing complex;

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

building, plastered, marked 1556, alterations in the 19th century (see also below) * At Burgstraße 16 –

spolia ''Spolia'' (Latin: 'spoils') is repurposed building stone for new construction or decorative sculpture reused in new monuments. It is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby stone that has been quarried, cut and used in a built ...

, two Baroque

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

marked 1743 * At Burgstraße 19 – relief stone, marked 1561 * Franz-von-Sickingen-Straße 4 – estate complex, 18th century; Baroque timber-frame house, plastered, barn, partly timber-frame * Franz-von-Sickingen-Straße 5 – Baroque timber-frame house, plastered, 1719 * Friedhofstraße, at the graveyard – Günther Franz's tomb, decorative façade, 1917; Hermann Müller's tomb,

, 1897 * Schloßgartenstraße – wayside cross, Baroque, 18th century * Schloßgartenstraße 30 – former

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

(?); Late Classicist building with hip roof, mid 19th century * Turmstraße 5 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, 17th century * Below the Ebernburg – double monument; 1886–1889, sculptor

Ludwig Cauer Ludwig Cauer (28 May 1866, Bad Kreuznach - 27 December 1947, Bad Kreuznach) was a German sculptor. Life He was born into a family of sculptors who operated a workshop founded by his grandfather Emil Cauer the Elder. After Emil's death in 1867 ...

after Carl Cauer's design * Ebernburg – castle, mentioned in 1209, beginning in 1482 expansion into modern fortress, burnt to ashes in 1523, after 1542 reconstruction, largely torn down in 1697; Hohenstaufen shielding wall remnants, buildings from the late 15th and 16th centuries, remnants of a dwelling building, marked 1581, Gothic Revival ''Haus Sickingen'', 1840 * Ebernburger Mühle, south of town on the Alsenz – former estate mill, mentioned in 1438, four-wing complex; two-and-a-half-floor house, marked 1871, upon older cellars; gateway arch marked 1584; barns, partly timber-frame * former

(''Alsenztalbahn'') signal box, south of town – building with hip roof, slate quarrystone, about 1904/1908 * Trombacher Hof, southwest of town – Late Baroque timber-frame house, marked 1798; in the barn building walls and gables of the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

church File:Ebernburg St, Johannes.jpg, Schloßgartenstraße: Saint John the Baptist's Parish Church File:Burg Ebernburg, Bad Münster am Stein, top of mountain.jpg, Castle Ebernburg File:Hutten-Sickingen-Denkmal.jpg, Below the Ebernburg: double monument

More about buildings

Among the town's sights are the rock formations known as the Rotenfels and the Rheingrafenstein, the latter of which bears a crag which itself bears the castle of the same name right on the river Nahe. There is also another castle, the Ebernburg. There is evidence that the

s used for producing

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

in Bad Münster am Stein already had their current form as far back as 1729. The weakly salty water from the salt spring is delivered to the graduation towers by pumps formerly driven by waterwheels, but now driven by

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

. From the top, the water trickles down in innumerable drops through walls of

blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, ...

to a collection basin, while the air in the area is enriched with salty material such as iodine,

bromine Bromine is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is the third-lightest element in group 17 of the periodic table ( halogens) and is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a simi ...

and strontium

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

s as well as the

noble gas The noble gases (historically also the inert gases; sometimes referred to as aerogens) make up a class of chemical elements with similar properties; under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low ch ...

. By making the water into mist during its trickling through to the collection basin, the water's saltiness is raised. The waterwheels and part of the equipment (rods for transmitting the motion) can still be viewed. The town's oldest secular building is the former

''Unteramt'' at Burgstraße 13. Into the lintel of the

part, the year 1556 has been chiselled. Investigations of this part of the building have also brought to light that there are mediaeval wall remnants underneath the Renaissance walls. Said to be Bad Münster's oldest property is the "Hahnenhof", first mentioned in 1560, a former Rhinegravial manor. The narrow so-called ''Zehntscheune'' ("

tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious orga ...

") with a

upper floor was in its time the financial office for

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

s paid in kind. The ''Kurmittelhaus'' (roughly "spa treatment house") in the ''Kurpark'' (spa park), built in 1911 in an Art Nouveau style with Nordic characteristics, is said to be one of the region's loveliest

buildings. It contains the spring hall with the two healing springs, the ''Maximilianquelle'' and the ''Rheingrafenquelle'', which rise up through three glass pipes.

Museums

Housed in the former local history museum's rooms at the ''Kurmittelhaus'' is the ''Naturstation Nahe'' where in the warmer months animals from the region can be observed, in particular the

dice snake Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

, which is indigenous to the river Nahe.

Regular events

Among special events in Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg are the " mediaeval" ''Ebernburger Markt'' (market) on the third weekend in September and the Christmas Market in the spa park.

Economy and infrastructure

Economic structure

Spa guests were in bygone decades an important source of income for Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg. After a few years in which the spa industry shrank greatly, the numbers of guests are now slowly rising once again. Most commercial enterprises in the town nowadays are

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

operations (lodging,

s) and

estates. There is moreover a cork wire factory where closure wire is made for

sekt Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

and

champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...

bottles.

Transport

Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg lies on the

( Bingen– Saarbrücken). At Bad Münster am Stein station, the

(''Alsenztalbahn'') branches of towards Kaiserslautern. The town lies within the area to which the ''Rhein-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund'' ("Rhine-Nahe Local Transport Association") applies. Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg can be reached by car on ''

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...

'' 48 and on ''

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...

n'' 235 and 379.

Famous people

Honorary citizens

* Max Kuna (d. 1989)

Sons and daughters of the town

* Franz von Sickingen (b. 1481 at Castle Ebernburg; d. 1523),

Amtmann __NOTOC__ The ''Amtmann'' or ''Ammann'' (in Switzerland) was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff. He was the most seni ...

at Castle Ebernburg, now and then bore the

byname An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

''Letzter Ritter'' ("Last Knight"); promoter of

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. * Heinrich Lorenz (1898–1966), born at ''Haus Lorenz'', captain of the biggest German passenger ship ''Bremen''; winner of the Blue Band for the fastest transatlantic crossing.

Famous people associated with the town

* J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), painted severa
watercolours
of the mountains and castle when he visited the area in 1844. * Rudolf Eickemeyer, (1831–1895), born in

, noted inventor with several innovations to hat manufacturing, patent for first symmetrical drum armature and iron-clad dynamo, and first employer of

Charles Proteus Steinmetz Charles Proteus Steinmetz (born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz, April 9, 1865 – October 26, 1923) was a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College. He fostered the development of alternati ...

. * Heinrich Georg Rung (1854–1931), worked for 43 years as the Pastor of Ebernburg; local historian, co-founder and chairman of the North Palatine History Club (''Nordpfälzer Geschichtsverein''). * Anna Kubach-Wilmsen and Wolfgang Kubach, sculptors * Ulrike Piechota (b. 1942), writer * Sigune von Osten (b. 1950), singer and music professor

References

;Arrtibution

External links

Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg Transport Association homepage

Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg in the collective municipality’s webpages

Ebernburg Mediaeval Market

at SWR Fernsehen {{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Munster Am Stein-Ebernburg Towns in Rhineland-Palatinate Bad Kreuznach (district) Naheland