Gemünd is a village in the

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

region of

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 about 3,800 inhabitants it is the largest village in the municipality of

Schleiden Schleiden () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the Eifel hills, in the district of Euskirchen (district), Euskirchen, and has 12,998 inhabitants as of 30 June 2017. Schleiden is connected by a tourist railway to Kall, German ...

. It is also a well known Kneipp resort.

Geography

In Gemünd the Olef has its mouth on the River

Urft Kall () is a municipality in the district of Euskirchen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Eifel hills, approximatively 20 km south-west of Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Öske ...

; hence the origin of the name of the village (''Mund'' =

iver Iver is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central nucleated village, clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park and the hamlets o ...

mouth). On the southern slopes of the

Kermeter The Kermeter is an upland region, up to , which is part of the Rureifel within the North Eifel in the districts of Aachen, Düren and Euskirchen in the southwestern part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The Kermeter ridge is ...

upland forest and east of the Dreiborn Plateau, the village of Gemünd is the southeastern gateway to the

Eifel National Park The Eifel National Park () is the 14th national park in Germany and the first in North Rhine-Westphalia. The park was founded in 2004, and is classified as a "national park in development". Eifel National Park is part of the much larger High ...

; the other two gateways to this core zone of the Germano-Belgian nature park are Rurberg in the west and

Heimbach Heimbach is a town in the district of Düren of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, in the Eifel hills, approx. 20 km south of Düren. Heimbach has the smallest population of any town in North Rhin ...

in the northeast.

Sights

Gemünd lies at the crossroads of the B 266 (''Kölner Straße/Aachener Straße'' from Simmerath to Linz am Rhein) and B 265 (''Luxemburger Straße/Dürener Straße'' from Cologne to Prüm) and on the confluence of the Olef and Urft. This point is marked by the Baroque statue of the patron saint of bridges,

John of Nepomuk John of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (; ; ) ( 1345 – 20 March 1393) was a saint of Bohemia (a western part of what is now the Czech Republic) who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia. Later accounts st ...

which was erected around 1730 and is made of red sandstone in the style of the bridge statues in Prague. It stands on a 1738 plinth with the Harff/Hoheneck coat of arms, and has been at this spot since 1859/60; before that it (or an older predecessor) stood on the Urft Viaduct which was replaced in 1734. Today, the original figure is in the spa house (''Kurhaus''); at its present site is a replica.

Georg Dehio Georg Gottfried Julius Dehio (22 November 1850 – 21 March 1932), was a Baltic German art historian. In 1900, Dehio started the "''Handbuch der deutschen Kunstgeschichte''" (Handbook of German Art History), published by Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, ...

: ''Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler, Rheinland.''

Deutscher Kunstverlag The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and bu ...

, 2005, p. 435. At the centre of the village above the river confluence to the north is the spa centre.

Literature

* Ruth Schmitz-Ehmke, Barbara Fischer: ''Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Euskirchen. Stadt Schleiden.'' Berlin, 1996. * Wilhelm Günther: ''Gemünder Stadtgeschichte im Spiegel alter Bilder'' (=''Heimatkalender des Kreises Schleiden.'') Schleiden, 1968. * Wilhelm Günther: ''Als Gemünd noch Kreishauptort war'' (=''Heimatkalender des Kreises Schleiden.'') Schleiden, 1965. * Peter Neu: ''Eisenindustrie in der Eifel.'' Köln 1988. * Ulrike Schwieren-Höger: ''Natur- und Kulturführer Nationalpark Eifel und seine neun Städte und Gemeinden.'' Gaasterland-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2007, . * Ernst Wackenroder: ''Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Schleiden''. Düsseldorf, 1932. * Hanna Wachtel, Lothar Braunisch: ''Schleiden-Gemünd.'' Stadt-Bild-Verlag, Leipzig o.J.

References

External links

Schleiden-Gemünd-Kriegsgräberstätte
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gemund #Schleiden Geography of the Eifel Spa towns in Germany Former municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia Euskirchen (district)