Montabaur


Montabaur is a town and the district seat of the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. At the same time, it is also the administrative centre of the Verbandsgemeinde of Montabaur – a kind of collective municipality – to which 24 other communities belong. The town is known throughout the country for its strikingly yellow castle and its InterCityExpress railway station on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.

Geography

Location

Montabaur lies in the Westerwald, roughly 20 km northeast of Koblenz. About 13,000 people live in the city, while the district is home to about 40,000.

Constituent communities

Montabaur has seven outlying centres. In the north lies Eschelbach, and in the west lie Horressen and Elgendorf. Stretching south along the Gelbach valley are the pilgrimage centre of Wirzenborn, and, farther along still, Reckenthal, Bladernheim and Ettersdorf.

Neighbouring communities

Montabaur's neighbours are, clockwise beginning in the north, Dernbach, Staudt, Heiligenroth, Großholbach, Girod, Steinefrenz, Heilberscheid, Isselbach, Stahlhofen, Untershausen, Holler, Niederelbert, Arzbach, Kadenbach, Neuhäusel, Nomborn and Hillscheid.

Town’s character

Montabaur's Old Town is famed for its Gothic Revival Roter Löwe town hall, many timber-frame houses from the 16th and 17th centuries and the great Late Gothic Catholic parish church. The mediaeval town wall is preserved in parts, including the Wolfsturm.
The Montabaur Stadthalle is intended for various functions such as conferences, concerts, theatre and other events. The historic Wolfsturm is at the townsfolk's disposal and can be hired for use.

Castle

Schloss Montabaur was the seat of the district administrator's office of the old Unterwesterwaldkreis until 1945 before becoming the seat of the Montabaur district government. Today, it is owned by the Akademie Deutscher Genossenschaften, which has expanded it for use as a 4-star conference hotel and training centre for the Raiffeisenbank and credit unions. It stands in a prominent position above the town on the Schlossberg at 321 m above sea level.

History

The town has a history that can be traced back to the year 959, with the Montabaur fort castellum Humbacense. The Archbishop-Elector of Trier, Dietrich von Wied, who came back from a Crusade in the Holy Land about 1217, had the humbacense castle newly built and named it Mons Tabor for its similarity to Mount Tabor in Israel, said to be the place of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Out of this grew Montabaur. In 1291, King Rudolf von Habsburg granted Montabaur, as well as Welschbillig, Mayen, Bernkastel and Saarburg, town rights, so that the village became a town with its own coat of arms and a town wall.
In 1802 with the dissolution of the Archbishopric-Electorate of Trier the princes of Nassau took power in Montabaur and annexed it to the Duchy of Nassau in 1806. With Prussia annexing Nassau in 1866 Montabaur became part of the Wiesbaden Region within the Province of Hesse-Nassau. In 1945 the western Allies partitioned the northwestern part of the Wiesbaden Region with Montabaur and annexed it to the new German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The partitioned part of the Wiesbaden Region then formed the Montabaur Region seated in Montabaur. In 1968 the Montabaur Region, one of the originally five Regierungsbezirke of Rhineland-Palatinate, was dissolved and its territory annexed to the adjacent Koblenz Region.
Until early 2004, Montabaur was furthermore a Bundeswehr station with the Westerwaldkaserne, where the Raketenartilleriebataillon 350 and, later, maintenance units were stationed.

Politics

Town council

The council is composed as follows:

Economy

is headquartered in Montabaur.

Transport

Buildings

Schools

Montabaur maintains partnership arrangements with the following towns:
Furthermore, the Verbandsgemeinde of Montabaur has a partnership with an American town:

Sons and daughters of the town