Leun

Leun

Coat of arms
Leun

Coordinates: 50°33′N 08°22′E / 50.550°N 8.367°E / 50.550; 8.367Coordinates: 50°33′N 08°22′E / 50.550°N 8.367°E / 50.550; 8.367
Country Germany
State Hesse
Admin. region Gießen
District Lahn-Dill-Kreis
Government
 • Bürgermeisterin Birgit Sturm
Area
 • Total 28.66 km2 (11.07 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)[1]
 • Total 5,862
 • Density 200/km2 (530/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 35638
Dialling codes 06473
Vehicle registration LDK
Website www.leun.de

Leun is a small town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.

Geography

Location

Leun lies some 10 km west of Wetzlar between the foothills of the northern Taunus and the Westerwald in the Lahn valley, at a height of 150 to 330 m above sea level.

Neighbouring communities

Leun borders in the north on the communities of Greifenstein and Ehringshausen, in the east on the town of Solms, in the south on the town of Braunfels (all in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis) and in the west on the community of Löhnberg (Limburg-Weilburg).

Constituent communities

The town consists of the five centres of Biskirchen, Bissenberg, Lahnbahnhof, Leun and Stockhausen.

History

Leun had its first documentary mention in 771. Building a stone bridge in the late 15th century and being granted market rights helped the village's economic growth, which in 1664 resulted in town rights being granted.

As part of Hesse's municipal reform, the new, bigger town of Leun came into being when the main town of Leun and the other aforesaid communities voluntarily joined together on 1 January 1972.

Politics

Town council

The municipal elections on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

SPD 8 seats
CDU 8 seats
FWG 5 seats
Greens 2 seats
NPD 2 seats

Note: FWG is a citizens' coalition.

Partnerships

The town of Leun maintains partnerships with the following places:

Sightseeing

Evangelical Church in Leun seen from the Dollberg

Evangelical Church

In the historic main town of Leun stands the Evangelical Church, whose exact building date is unknown. The mighty "defensive" tower and the main nave are Romanesque, whereas the sanctuary's and transept's origins are early and late Gothic respectively.

Within the church is an old and, in terms of art history, meaningful, wooden pulpit with panelling showing Southwest Asian motifs. In the transept stands the organ built in 1808 by the brothers Philipp Heinrich and Johann Georg Bürgy. It has 13 stops on one manual keyboard, and a pedalboard. In the tower hang three bells, none of which comes from the bellmaker's that originally did business in the town.

Up from the church lies the graveyard in which can be found remains of the old town wall and the old Upper Gate.

Historic town core

The town core still has a few stately timber-frame houses that bear witness to the town's bygone wealth. In one is housed the town museum. The best known among them is the Erkerhaus ("Bay Window House") on Limburger Straße, which nowadays is counted among the town's landmarks. At the great Baroque porch into the yard, the remains of the former Junkernhof (see Junker) can be recognized, seat of the family Mohr, with a still preserved manor house. Also worth seeing are the old mill and the old Latin school.

Biskirchen

In the constituent community of Biskirchen are the ruins of the old Bischofskirche (Bishop's Church), and a well house housing the healing spring that appears here.

Natural monuments

In the northern forest is the Leuner Burg, but although "Burg" means "castle", it is actually a former quarry which is now considered a natural monument.

Sport

Leun is where the regular tennis tournament called the Leun Open is held.

Transport

Leun lies on Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) 49.

To the north, by way of Ehringshausen, is an interchange with the Autobahn A 45.

Within Leun's municipal area are found two railway stations, Leun/Braunfels (in the constituent community of Lahnbahnhof) and Stockhausen on the Lahn Valley Railway (Lahntalbahn) running from Gießen through Limburg to Koblenz.

References

  1. ↑ "Bevölkerung der hessischen Gemeinden". Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt (in German). August 2016.
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