Erpolzheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
belonging to a ''
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns.
Rhineland- ...
'', a kind of collective municipality – in the
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine ...
district in
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 ...
.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies in the
Palatinate on the
German Wine Route
The German Wine RouteScheunemann J., Stewart J., Walker N. and Williams C. (2011), ''Back Roads Germany'', Dorling Kindersley, London. . or Wine Road (german: Deutsche Weinstraße) is the oldest of Germany's tourist wine routes. Located in the ...
. Erpolzheim belongs to the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Freinsheim, whose seat is in the
like-named town.
History
In 781, the municipality had its first documentary mention as ''Erbholfesheim''.
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: '
The municipality’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 branc ...
language be described thus: Per pale azure issuant from the line of partition an eagle displayed argent armed and langued gules, and argent a bunch of grapes slipped proper reversed.
The village’s oldest known seal from the 16th century bears the eagle as a
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 Aqua ...
, the device also borne by the
Counts of Leiningen
The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Impe ...
, who held the local lordship. Late in that same century, the grapes were added to stand for
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 ...
. Some later seals, however, showed another plant with three leaves. The current arms are based on seals from the 16th and 17th centuries. They have been borne since 17 July 1952.
Description and explanation of Erpolzheim’s arms
/ref>
Culture and sightseeing
Regular events
Each year in May, a culinary walking tour is held for fruit, asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
and wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
with 16 sampling stops offering homemade treats amidst the blossoming fruit groves and vineyards.
Along the 6.5 km walking circuit one finds, besides asparagus dishes, also other specialities and Erpolzheim wines.
Each year on the second-last weekend in August, the ''Weinkerwe'' (wine fair) is held.
At the ''Erpolzheimer Martinsmarkt'' (market) in November, artists display their works in the open courtyards.
Economy and infrastructure
Wine
In Erpolzheim, the following wineries and wine estates can be found:
* Weingut Hubach
* Winzerhof Horst Koch
* Weingut Kohl
* Weingut Herbert Koob & Sohn
* Winzerhof Ruth Mayer
* Weingut Veddeler
Transport
Erpolzheim lies on the single-track Neustadt an der Weinstrasse - Bad Dürkheim - Freinsheim – Grünstadt 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 ...
line and it has a stop with a lovely 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 pre ...
building, although it is not used as such, but rather as a house. In the village centre up by the church is a bus stop served by buses on the ''Busverkehr Rhein-Neckar'' (BRN) route 453.
Notable people
Sons and daughters of the town
* Georg Ludwig von Maurer
Georg Ludwig Maurer, from 1831 Georg Ludwig von Maurer (2 November 1790 – 9 May 1872) was a German statesman and legal historian from the Electoral Palatinate.
Biography
Maurer was born at Erpolzheim, near Dürkheim as the son of a Protes ...
(1790–1872), jurist, legal historian and politician.
References
External links
Municipality’s official webpage
{{Authority control
Bad Dürkheim (district)