Scheßlitz

Scheßlitz
Coat of arms
Scheßlitz
Location of Scheßlitz within Bamberg district
Coordinates: 49°58′30″N 11°2′00″E / 49.97500°N 11.03333°E / 49.97500; 11.03333Coordinates: 49°58′30″N 11°2′00″E / 49.97500°N 11.03333°E / 49.97500; 11.03333
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Oberfranken
District	Bamberg
Government
• Mayor	Franz Zenk
Area
• Total	94.88 km2 (36.63 sq mi)
Elevation	310 m (1,020 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	7,176
• Density	76/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	96110
Dialling codes	09542
Vehicle registration	BA
Website	www.schesslitz.de

Scheßlitz (or Schesslitz) is a town in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg and lies on the rise to the Franconian Switzerland on the A 70 between Bamberg and Bayreuth, lying 14 km northeast of the former.

The town is surrounded by the following hills:

This basin’s sheltered setting with roads that come together from Heiligenstadt, Hollfeld, Weismain, Bad Staffelstein and Zapfendorf favoured settlement in prehistoric times.

Scheßlitz’s main town and namesake centre is by far the biggest of its Ortsteile with a population of 2,548. The town furthermore has these outlying centres, each given here with its own population figure:

(as of 31 March/4 April 2005)

The amalgamation of these Stadtteile into Scheßlitz on 1 May 1972 and 1 May 1978 made the town the district's biggest municipality by land area.

Scheßlitz had its first documentary mention about 805. Scheßlitz is among the area’s oldest settlements and has held town rights since 1230.

Linear Pottery remains in the Kohlstatt (“cabbage place”) make clear that there were settlers here as long ago as 2500 BC.

Concrete clues as to the town’s history are yielded by the Codex Eberhardi in which it is documented that a Count Bernhard and his wife Ratbirg bequeathed their property on what is now Scheßlitz’s abutting rural area to the Fulda Monastery about the year 800. The town has seized on this event as its historical beginnings and thus celebrated its 1,200-year jubilee in 2005.

It is said that confirmation of the existence of a parish of Scheßlitz is the underwriting of a protocol about the Bamberg Synod in 1059 by Arnold de Sieslice.

The town gained importance through the Andechs Meranians’ activities, who rose to dukes in 1178. In 1230, one of Duke Otto VIII’s fortified Andechs Meranian castles in the civitas of Scheßlitz was mentioned, making Scheßlitz the Bamberg district’s oldest town.