Sankt Wendel is a Kreis (
district) in the north of the
Saarland,
Germany. Neighboring districts are
Trier-Saarburg,
Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld () is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde''. The town itself has approximately 7,000 inhabitants.
Geography
...
,
Kusel,
Neunkirchen,
Saarlouis
Saarlouis (; french: link=no, Sarrelouis, ; formerly Sarre-Libre and Saarlautern) is a town in Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis. In 2020, the town had a population of 34,409. Saarlouis, as the name implies, is located on t ...
, and
Merzig-Wadern.
History
The district was created in 1834 when
Prussia bought the Lichtenberg area from
Saxony-Coburg. After the
World War I, the Saar area came under special rulership of the
League of Nations, and thus the Sankt Wendel district was split into two parts. The northern part, the ''Restkreis Sankt Wendel'', was merged into the district
Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld () is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde''. The town itself has approximately 7,000 inhabitants.
Geography
...
, the southern part stayed in the
Saarland in its reduced size.
Geography
The district is located in the ''Saar-
Hunsrück
The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...
'' natural area, a hilly area with elevations between 200 and 600 meters.
The main river in the district is the
Nahe. The ''Bostalsee'' is the biggest tourist lake in the south-west of Germany, covering an area of about 1.2 km².
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: ''Im silber und blau geteilten Schild ein rot bezungter und rot bewehrter Löwe mit gewechselten Farben, belegt mit einem goldenen Herzschild, darin eine rote heraldische Lilie.''
Heraldic blazon
/ref>
The district'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 language be described thus: Per fess argent and azure a lion rampant counterchanged armed and langued gules surmounted by an inescutcheon Or charged with a fleur-de-lis of the third.
The lion charge is actually to be interpreted as a composite of two lions, with the blue part in the upper field representing the charge borne by the Counts of Veldenz, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach
The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...
, while the silver part in the lower field represents Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
-Saarbrücken. The two counties had the most important landholds in the district. The inescutcheon (inset shield) in the middle bears a fleur-de-lis charge taken from the town of Sankt Wendel in tinctures drawn from the arms of Lorraine.
Towns and municipalities
References
External links
*
Tourism website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sankt Wendel (District)
Districts of the Saarland