Waldsassen

Market square and basilica

Coat of arms

Waldsassen

Location of Waldsassen within Tirschenreuth district

Coordinates: 50°0′N 12°18′E / 50.000°N 12.300°ECoordinates: 50°0′N 12°18′E / 50.000°N 12.300°E

Country

Government

• Mayor

Bernd Sommer (CSU)

Area

• Total

66.54 km² (25.69 sq mi)

Elevation

477 m (1,565 ft)

Population (2015-12-31)

• Total

6,741

• Density

100/km² (260/sq mi)

CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)

95652

09632

TIR

Website

www.waldsassen.de

Waldsassen is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria.

Waldsassen is the northernmost municipality of the Upper Palatinate region. In the northeast, it borders the town of Cheb (Eger) in the Czech Republic. The historic tripoint of ducal Altbayern, the Franconian lands of Bayreuth, and the Bohemian Egerland lies near the village of Pechtnersreuth.

The town is famous for the Waldsassen Basilica and former Waldsassen Abbey, both erected in a Baroque style. The latter contains the much visited Abbey library, whose wood carvings were completed by Karl Stilp in 1726. Four km north of the town, on Glasberg hill, is the Chapel of the Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche Kappl), built in 1689, and a popular pilgrimage destination.

The Cistercian Waldsassen Abbey was founded on 1 October 1133 by the Bavarian noble Margrave Diepold III of Vohburg. An Imperial abbey from 1214 onwards, it fell to Palatinate-Mosbach-Neumarkt branch of the House of Wittelsbach under the rule of Count Palatine Otto II in 1465.

The Palatinate rulers had the monastery dissolved in the course of the Protestant Reformation in 1571, whereafter the premises were used as tenements. Not until the 17th century new building arose in the vicinity, while after the Counter-Reformation, the abbey from 1661 onwards was resettled with Cistercian monks descending from Fürstenfeld Abbey. However, Waldsassen again was secularised during the 1803 German Mediatisation.

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Wikipedia