Elz is a municipality in Limburg-Weilburg district in western Hesse, Germany, on the boundary with Rhineland-Palatinate.
Geography
Location
Elz lies at an elevation of 110 to 291 m north of the Lahn in the Limburg Basin with the municipal area reaching into the heights on its western edge and thereby into the area of the Lower Westerwald (Elzer Wald). From north to south the municipal area is crossed by the flat-bottomed Elbbach valley, whose resident stream rises in the High Westerwald and flows south from Elz, emptying into the Lahn.
Geology
The Elbbach's broad lower reaches follow a tectonically created fault (Elzer Graben) which stretches northwards into the community of Dornburg. The Devonian bedrock here is, especially west of the Elbbach, overlain with thick sedimentary fill from the Tertiary (clays, sands, gravels) of which especially the quartz sand has afforded the region some economic importance. Overlying these in turn are layers of Ice Age loess deposits, which have laid the basis for fruitful agriculture.
Neighbouring communities
Elz borders in the north on the community of Hundsangen (in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate) and the town of Hadamar, in the east and south on the town of Limburg (both in Limburg-Weilburg), and in the west on the communities of Hambach (in the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate), Görgeshausen, Niedererbach and Obererbach (all three in the Westerwaldkreis).
Constituent communities
Elz's Ortsteile are, with population figures as at 31 December 2007, Elz (7,949) and Malmeneich (344).
All together, the community has 8,293 inhabitants. Elz's main centre, also called Elz, is, after Limburg an der Lahn's main centre the second biggest place in Limburg-Weilburg.
Climate
The yearly average temperature in Elz is 8.5 °C and in Malmeneich 7.9 °C.
The average yearly precipitation ranges from 600 to 650 mm in Elz and in Malmeneich is 720 mm.
Spring's onset falls on average in Elz sometime between 29 April and 5 May.
History
The placename presumably springs from the alder (Erle in German). Elz crops up for the first time in the 933 Wiltrud document, now no longer in existence. The oldest existing document comes from the year 1145.
The village on the important strata publica, or Hohe Straße ("High Road") between Frankfurt am Main and Cologne was in the Middle Ages at first under royal rule. Later the property passed to the Electorate of Trier. The outlying countryside, however, belonged to the Counts of Nassau, which led to centuries-long border disputes.
On 1 September 1442, Elz was granted town rights by King Friedrich IV. The document attesting this, which guaranteed the Elz townsmen in the Late Middle Ages their freedom was effected by Archbishop of Trier Jacob I of Sierck. The original document has been lost, but in the Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz, three authenticated copies from 1442 and 1443 are kept (Bestand 1 A, Nr. ). The town fortification that was soon built was later torn down by the Counts of Nassau. Complicated ownership relationships led to further disputes between the Landgraves of Hesse, the Electorate of Trier and Nassau.
With Secularization in 1802, Trier's overlordship ended and Elz passed to the Principality of Nassau-Weilburg. From 1806 it belonged to the Duchy of Nassau. In 1866 it passed to Prussia.
Religion
History
Until the 13th century, Elz belonged with some 20 other places to the parish of Dietkirchen, which with its Romanesque basilica was widely known throughout the Lahn valley. According to information handed down, Elz was already an autonomous parish beginning in 1234.
Before the current parish church of Sankt Johannes der Täufer ("Saint John the Baptist"), which to a considerable extent shapes the village's appearance, a smaller church stood on the same spot, whose exact dimensions and appearance are only vaguely known. References can be found to a Romanesque building with a length of roughly 13.5 m and a breadth of 9.3 m. The graveyard, now lying west of the church, lay at that time around the old parish church.
Current parish church
The foundation stones were laid on 27 June 1852, on the occasion of which a celebratory Mass by Bishop Peter Josef Blum and Vicar-General Klein was said. A stone plaque with the year 1852 over the sandstone architrave block facing Pfortenstraße still witnesses this event. After about two years, the church, albeit still without a steeple, could be consecrated by Bishop Blum on 19 November 1854.