Kerpen, Rhineland-Palatinate
| Kerpen | ||
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 Kerpen
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Location of Kerpen within Vulkaneifel district
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| Coordinates: 50°18′45″N 6°43′54″E / 50.31250°N 6.73167°ECoordinates: 50°18′45″N 6°43′54″E / 50.31250°N 6.73167°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | North Rhine-Westphalia | |
| District | Vulkaneifel | |
| Municipal assoc. | Hillesheim | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Rudolf Raetz | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 8.22 km2 (3.17 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 450 m (1,480 ft) | |
| Population (2015-12-31) | ||
| • Total | 467 | |
| • Density | 57/km2 (150/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 54578 | |
| Dialling codes | 06593 | |
| Vehicle registration | DAU | |
| Website | www.kerpen-eifel.de | |
Kerpen (Eifel) is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Hillesheim, whose seat is in the like-named town.
The municipality lies in the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.
Kerpen’s Ortsteile are Loogh and Kerpen.
Archaeological finds bear witness to human habitation in the Hillesheim limestone hollow between 600 and 400 BC. About 225 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, built a defensive structure on the Weinberg (mountain) near Kerpen. Beginning in 55 BC, Roman roads and villas began appearing in the Kerpen area.
Sometime between AD 600 and 700, the Franks had a village near what is now Kerpen, called “Stilsdorf”. Frankish graves have been found in and around Kerpen.
In 1136, Kerpen had its first documentary mention when “Sigibertus von Kerpen”, who is believed to have been the first to build a castle on the Höhenberg, was named in a document. Settlers from Stilsdorf settled at the foot of the castle. Sometime before 1197, the brothers Dietrich, Alexander and Albero von Kerpen endowed a convent in Niederehe. In 1201, Dietrich I von Kerpen was mentioned as the lord of the Manderscheid Lower Castle. At about this same time came Heinrich II von Kerpen, who is considered the “forefather of the Manderscheids”. Between 1200 and 1208, Otto von Kerpen was the second Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
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Wikipedia