Ormont
| Ormont | ||
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 Ormont
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Location of Ormont within Vulkaneifel district
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| Coordinates: 50°19′39.20″N 6°26′33.79″E / 50.3275556°N 6.4427194°ECoordinates: 50°19′39.20″N 6°26′33.79″E / 50.3275556°N 6.4427194°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| District | Vulkaneifel | |
| Municipal assoc. | Obere Kyll | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Cornelius Dahm | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 12.44 km2 (4.80 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 530 m (1,740 ft) | |
| Population (2015-12-31) | ||
| • Total | 363 | |
| • Density | 29/km2 (76/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 54597 | |
| Dialling codes | 06557 | |
| Vehicle registration | DAU | |
| Website | www.ormont.de | |
Ormont 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 Obere Kyll, whose seat is in the municipality of Jünkerath.
It is often supposed that Ormont’s name is of French origin (or = “gold”; mont = “mountain”), but this is not so. In the Liber Aureus, the “Golden Book” of the town of Prüm, is a boundary description for the centres of Olzheim and Ormont. Here, the village is called Aurimuncio, in Mediaeval Latin. Nonetheless, this does have the same literal meaning as the supposed French derivation (aurum = “gold”; mons/montem = “mountain”). Either way, therefore, the municipality’s name means “Gold Mountain”.
The municipality lies at the foot of the Schneifel 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.
Geologically interesting is the Goldberg, a local mountain whose name, like Ormont’s own, means “Gold Mountain”, but in Modern High German. The former volcano is the Vulkaneifel’s westernmost outlier. Its name comes from the many biotite crystals that glitter in the sun. In the local folkspeech, these have been given the name Katzengold (“cat gold”), although this is actually a name given several minerals in German, including fool’s gold. Now and then, olivine nodules can also be found. Since the Second World War, the volcano’s lava has been intensively quarried.
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Wikipedia