Bronnen is a village in the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, with a population of 706. Administratively it is part of the municipality of

Achstetten Achstetten () is the northernmost Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the district of Biberach (district), Biberach, in the region of Upper Swabia in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The villages of Oberholzheim, Bronnen (Achstetten), Bronnen ...

Geography

Bronnen is located 1 km south of Achstetten, being separated from it by the federal road

Bundesstraße 30 The Bundesstraße 30 (abbreviated B30) is a highly frequented federal highway in Germany running through Upper Swabia in Baden-Württemberg from Ulm to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. It has a length of approximately 105 km (approxima ...

and 2 km northeast of

Laupheim Laupheim (; ) is a major district town in southern Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Laupheim was first mentioned in 778 and gained city rights in 1869. One of the main trading routes, from Ulm to Ravensburg and then on towards Lake ...

on the district road 7519 The village borders the municipality of

Burgrieden Burgrieden () is a municipality in the district of Biberach in Baden-Württemberg, in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the n ...

to the southeast. Bronnen is situated on a high

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

with some built-up area along the main road winding down the slope into the valley of the river Rot. In Bronnen there are numerous

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s, hence the name of the village which is derived from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

words ''brunno'' meaning well.

History

The area of Bronnen has been settled from early times on. A number of

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

c grave fields have been discovered within its boundaries. Bronnen itself was first mentioned as ''Brunnon'' in a document from 8 June 1157 in which a church in the village belonging to Saint Blaise Abbey is referred to. Bronnen seems to have had its own noble family since between 1265 and 1365 the lords of Bronnen appear in documents, the last one mentioned by name was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

Brun von Bronnen in 1352. From the end of the 14th century until 1639 Bronnen belonged to the lords of Freyberg zu Achstetten.

High justice High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents. The scale ...

was executed by the

Bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

of Swabia whereas low justice was in the hands of the lords of Freyberg from 1603 onwards. Following the death of the last lord, Philipp Eduard von Freyberg zu Achstetten, the village was after some legal disputes inherited by his four sisters whose heirs eventually sold it to

Wiblingen Abbey Wiblingen Abbey was a former Benedictine abbey which was later used as barracks. Today its buildings house several departments of the medical faculty of the University of Ulm. The former abbey is located south of the Confluence (geography), ...

in 1710. Low justice passed on first to

Gutenzell Abbey Gutenzell Abbey () was a Cistercian nunnery in the municipality of Gutenzell-Hürbel in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The origins of the monastery are unknown. According to legend, the monastery was founded in the 12th ce ...

in 1685 and, in 1769, to Wiblingen Abbey. During the course of the

German mediatisation German mediatisation (; ) was the major redistribution and reshaping of territorial holdings that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany by means of the subsumption and Secularization (church property), secularisation of a large number of ...

and the dissolution of Wiblingen Abbey, the village became part of the

Electorate of Bavaria The Electorate of Bavaria () was a quasi-independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Bavaria was the younger ...

in 1805, and following the establishing of the

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...

in 1806 it was incorporated into the

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806. Geogr ...

. With the opening of the Laupheim–Schwendi railway line in 1904, Bronnen was connected by public transport to Schwendi and Laupheim. On 1 November 1972 Bronnen was joined with the municipality of Achstetten.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Bronnen is parted per fess (horizontally) depicting in the upper division a burning golden candle and a golden

crosier A crozier or crosier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catho ...

azure Azure may refer to: Color * Azure (color), a hue of blue ** Azure (heraldry) ** Shades of azure, shades and variations Arts and media * ''Azure'' (Art Farmer and Fritz Pauer album), 1987 * Azure (Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell album), 2013 * ...

, the

candle A candle is an ignitable candle wick, wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a Aroma compound, fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. ...

being an attribute of St Blaise while the crozier represents the various

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

under whose jurisdictions Bronnen fell or which had certain rights within the village. The lower division shows a village well on or, the well being

canting arms Canting arms are heraldry, heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. The expression derives from the latin ''cantare'' (to sing). French heralds used the term (), ...

representing the name Bronnen. The

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

azure and or were taken from the coat of arms of Saint Blaise Abbey to which the church of Bronnen had been affiliated.

Economy

Until the mid-20th century Bronnen was predominantly agrarian-oriented. Today the largest single employer is Erwin Halder KG with approximately 200 employees, manufacturing metal parts and components.

Attractions

Parish church Saint Blaise and Margaret

A church in Bronnen was first mentioned in the 12th century. In 1520 it was dedicated to

St Margaret Saint Margaret, St. Margarets, or St. Margaret's may refer to: People In chronological order: * Saint Margaret the Virgin of Antioch (died 304) * Saint Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045–1093) * Saint Margaret of England (died 1192) * Saint Margaret ...

and in 1584 also to St Blaise. The core of the current building is Late Gothic but was converted to

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

in the 17th and 18th century. In 1658 a tower was added, followed by new

panelling Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity ...

in 1667, and

Apostle An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary. The word is derived from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", itself derived from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to se ...

figures in 1672. The interior was further reshaped in Baroque and

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

styles between 1711 and 1721 and again between 1731 and 1737 with contributions by

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Martin Weller from

Ehingen Ehingen (Donau) (; ) is a town in the Alb-Donau (district), Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, situated on the left bank of the Danube, approx. southwest of Ulm and southeast of Stuttgart. The city, like the entire district o ...

and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Dominikus Hermenegild Herberger from

Dietenheim Dietenheim () is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Iller, south of Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and ...

who created a

processional cross A processional cross is a crucifix or cross which is carried in Christian processions. Such crosses have a long history: the Gregorian mission of Saint Augustine of Canterbury to England carried one before them "like a standard", according to ...

and statues of the St Blaise and St Margaret. Between 1869 and 1868 the church's interior was redesigned in

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style during which most of the Baroque and Rococo interiors were removed. In 1933 the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was extended and a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

was added. In 1997 and 1998 the whole structure was renovated.

References

External links

Webpage of the municipality of Achstetten (in German)
{{authority control Achstetten Villages in Baden-Württemberg