Oberbettingen

Oberbettingen
Coat of arms
Oberbettingen
Location of Oberbettingen within Vulkaneifel district
Coordinates: 50°17′10.57″N 6°37′40.84″E / 50.2862694°N 6.6280111°E / 50.2862694; 6.6280111Coordinates: 50°17′10.57″N 6°37′40.84″E / 50.2862694°N 6.6280111°E / 50.2862694; 6.6280111
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Vulkaneifel
Municipal assoc.	Hillesheim
Government
• Mayor	Hans-Jakob Meyer
Area
• Total	6.17 km2 (2.38 sq mi)
Elevation	413 m (1,355 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	730
• Density	120/km2 (310/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	54578
Dialling codes	06593
Vehicle registration	DAU

Oberbettingen 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 on a flat expanse in the valley of the river Kyll 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.

In 845, Bettingen, or more specifically, Niederbettingen Castle, had its first documentary mention in a document from King Lothar by way of St. Maximin’s Abbey in Trier. In the Middle Ages, the village belonged to the House of Bettingen, under whom were the Counts of Blankenheim, Manderscheid and Gerolstein. About 1470, Oberbettingen was made subject to the County of Gerolstein. Some of the earlier Lords of Bettingen were the Abbot of Prüm in 1077, Wirich von Bettingen in 1157 and Theobald von Bettingen in 1158.

Under French rule (1794-1814), Oberbettingen was assigned to the mayor of the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Lissendorf in the like-named canton. Even later, under Prussian administration, the village was still administered by Lissendorf.

Oberbettingen was until 1750 an autonomous parish. Ever since, it has belonged to the Parish of Niederbettingen, a constituent community of the town of Hillesheim. The former parish church, Saint Nicholas’s, now serves only as a chapel of ease. There was a conversion of the quire in 1827 and of the nave in 1841. The churchtower was built higher in 1937 to accommodate another bell. In 1960 came more expansion work on the nave, and the adjoining rectory was built. Venerated in Oberbettingen is the Irish saint Brigid of Kildare, patron saint of , and for decades, on 1 February – Saint Brigid’s feast day – pilgrims from all the surrounding villages would come in processions to Oberbettingen.