Wesseln is a village with a long history in the northern part of the town of

Bad Salzdetfurth is a town on the banks of the River Lamme in the district of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography The municipality includes the town itself, and 12 civil parishes (''Ortsteile'') which were incorporated in 1974: * Bodenburg * Brein ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, Germany. It lies on the River Lamme, a tributary of the

Innerste The Innerste is a river in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Leine river and in length. Origin of the name The river name is not related to the German word ''innerste'' meaning innermost. ''Innerste'', in earlier times c ...

. The village has a railway station served by the Lamme Valley Railway .

History

Wesseln was first mentioned in records as ''Westenem'' in 1146. Later, the village was also called ''Westheim''. In a document written in 1215, ''Henricus sacerdote de Westene'', the priest of Wesseln, was mentioned as a witness in a trial. In the 16th century, Wesseln ceased to be an independent parish and became part of the parish of nearby Detfurth where

the Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was not introduced. Originally Protestants were not allowed to settle in Wesseln and Detfurth. Wesseln had a small

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 ...

chapel on the right bank of the Lamme where the priest from Detfurth held regular services. When the number of inhabitants increased in the 19th century, the chapel proved to be too small. A church was built on the left bank of the Lamme in 1853-55, and the old chapel was used as a stable and barn until it burnt down in 1905. The extraction of

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

salt at a mine in Salzdetfurth, which started in 1896, and the inauguration of the Lamme Valley Railway in 1900 promoted the economic growth and industrial development of the village. At the beginning of the 20th century, Wesseln had 388 inhabitants. In 1974 Wesseln was incorporated into the borough of

together with several other villages. The railway station was closed in 1991, but reopened in 2003 after the line had been modernized and taken over by a private company.

Politics

The parish chair is held by Burkhard Helfenbein (CDU).

Sights

* St. John Baptist is a small Catholic church with about 60 seats in the village centre. Services are regularly held. It was built of quarrystone in a

neogothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style in 1853-55. Its

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 ...

has large stained-glass windows set in pointed arches, and a

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...

with a

flèche Flèche or Fleche may refer to: *Flèche (architecture), a type of church spire *Flèche (cycling), a team cycling competition *Flèche (fencing), an aggressive offensive fencing technique *Flèche (fortification) A flèche ( Fr. for "arrow") is ...

instead of a tower. The small

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

in the northern part of the building has a

tented roof A tented roof (also known as a pavilion roof) is a type of polygonal hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak. W. Dean EastmanHometown Handbook: Architecture./ref> Tented roofs, a hallmark of medieval religious architecture, wer ...

and a round window. The entrance doorway in the southern part has a pointed arch. * There are several picturesque half-timbered houses in the village centre. * A glider airfield is located northwest of the village. * Wesseln is surrounded by wooded hills offering a scenic view of the village and the Lamme valley. Two noteworthy historic oaks on the Turmberg hill, the 600-year-old ''Sängereiche'' and 650-year-old ''Passeiche'', can be reached by footpaths.Hartwig Kemmerer: ''Reiseführer Hildesheimer Land'', p. 210. Hildesheim 2003.

Traffic connections

There are good train connections from

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

to Wesseln and to Bad Salzdetfurth with one train per hour on working days and one train at least every two hours on Sundays and public holidays. From the railway station of Wesseln,

Bockenem Bockenem (; Eastphalian: ''Bokeln'') is a town in the district of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany that was founded in 1154. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Surrounding villages *Jerze *Königsdahlum *Bornum *Mahlum *Schlewecke ...

can be reached by bus on working days.

Gallery

Image:St.-Johannes-Kirche (Wesseln).jpg, St. John Baptist Image:WesselnChurch.jpg, St. John Baptist Image:BadSalzd 033.jpg, Village centre Image:BadSalzd 029.jpg, River Lamme Image:BadSalzd 039.jpg, Railway station

References

External links

Website of Bad Salzdetfurth (in German)

Website of Wesseln (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wesseln Villages in Lower Saxony Hildesheim (district) Bad Salzdetfurth