Seßlach () is a town in the district of Coburg, in northern

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 l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. It is situated 12 km southwest of

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...

and has a population close to 4,000. Seßlach is notable for its largely intact medieval town wall and overall historic appearance with few modern structures.

Geography

Location

Seßlach is located in

Upper Franconia Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a '' Regierungsbezirk'' (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle ...

. To the north, the municipal territory borders on

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. To the west and south lies the district Haßberge.

Subdivisions

Seßlach consists of 17 '' Stadtteile'':
(inhabitants as of July 2015)www.sesslach.de Zahlen Daten
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History

The first written mention of the two settlements on the ''Kirchhügel'' (church hill) and the ''Geiersberg'' (vulture hill) comes from the year 800. The Abbess Emhild of the monastery Milz transferred the monasterial properties by this certificate to

Fulda Abbey The Abbey of Fulda (German ''Kloster Fulda'', Latin ''Abbatia Fuldensis''), from 1221 the Princely Abbey of Fulda (''Fürstabtei Fulda'') and from 1752 the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda (''Fürstbistum Fulda''), was a Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastic ...

. In 1335, the emperor '' Ludwig der Bayer'' awarded Seßlach the status of town. This gave the residents the permission to fortify their settlement which they soon did. By 1343 the first town gate had been erected. Later that century, the town became the seat of an ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' and a ''Centgericht'' of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg. Seßlach was part of the ''Hochstift Würzburg'' until

secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses t ...

in 1803. Over the centuries, the town suffered more under the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

(1525) than nearby

and was also damaged and plundered during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

, the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754– ...

and the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. In 1810, the ''Amt Seßlach'' came 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 E ...

and gradually lost importance. In 1812, an ''

Amtsgericht An ''Amtsgericht'' (District Court) in Germany is an official court. These courts form the lowest level of the so-called ' ordinary jurisdiction' of the German judiciary (German ''Ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit''), which is responsible for most cri ...

'' was established but in the 1929 ''Staatsreform'' it was sidelined. In 1972, Seßlach became part of the '' Landkreis Coburg''.

Attractions

Seßlach is notable for its largely intact medieval town wall and overall historic appearance with few modern structures. It features many half-timbered buildings. The parish church, ''St. Johannes'', was built in the 13th century and later redesigned in

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

. The 2006 movie of

The Robber Hotzenplotz The Robber Hotzenplotz ( ) is a character created by German author Otfried Preußler for his children's book series of the same name. There are three tales about Hotzenplotz: * ''The Robber Hotzenplotz'' (1962) * ''News from the Robber Hotzenplo ...

was filmed in Seßlach.

Infrastructure

Transport

'' Bundesstrasse 303'' passes through the municipal territory north of the town itself.

References

External links

Municipal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sesslach Coburg (district)