Geisa
Geisa
| Geisa | |
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 Geisa
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Location of the town of Geisa within Wartburgkreis district
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| Coordinates | 50°43′N 9°58′E / 50.71667°N 9.96667°E |
| Administration | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Thuringia |
| District | Wartburgkreis |
| Mayor | Martin Henkel (CDU) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 71.75 km2 (27.70 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 318 m (1043 ft) |
| Population | 4,740 (31 December 2010) |
| - Density | 66 /km2 (171 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | WAK |
| Postal code | 36419 |
| Area code | 036967 |
| Website | www.geisa.de |
Geisa is a town in the Wartburgkreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Rhön Mountains, 26 km northeast of Fulda. The near border with Hesse was the border between West Germany and the GDR during the Cold War. Thus, Geisa was in the East German border restriction area of the former inner German border.
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Geography
Geisa is a town in the north of the Rhön Mountains. It is located on the Ulster River.
History
Geisa is located in Buchonia, near Fulda.
Geisa's oldest area of settlement is located on Mount Gangolfiberg, which is also the highest point of the little town and the only surviving medieval place of jurisdiction in Thuringia, the so called Zentgericht - dating from the 11th century. The deed of town ordinances and privileges was lost, the first notation as civitas is from 1302. As an administration centre of the abbey Fulda, Geisa was a Catholic-dominated region. Athanasius Kircher was born on May 2 in either 1601 or 1602 in Geisa.
Because of wars and fires in the past, only a modicum of historic buildings is present. In the heart of the town is the Catholic Parish Church (Stadtpfarrkirche) of St Philip and St James, which was built between 1489 and 1504. It is the only surviving Gothic church in the Geisa region.
A rarity is the carillon, a special kind of 49 bronze bells on the church tower. Above the marketplace is the listed Geisa castle ensemble. The Schlossplatz, the square in front of the castle, is framed by the local court (1540), a former prison, the Stadtschloss (1700–1714) - a building of Johann Dientzenhofer, a number of commercial buildings, and the Protestant church (1860).
For many years a former US observation camp - in military notation Point Alpha - was one of the hottest spots in the Cold War. Since 2008, the headquarters of the Point Alpha foundation have been located in the castle in Geisa, as well as the municipal museum too.
Perhaps the best-preserved and most beautifully situated Jewish village cemetery in Germany is on its outskirts.
Suburbs
Suburbs and their population:
- Town overall: 3390
- City of Geisa (approx. 2260)
- Suburb Borsch (approx. 690)
- Suburb Bremen (approx. 320)
- Suburb Geblar (approx. 60)
- Suburb Otzbach (approx. 140)
- Suburb Wiesenfeld (approx. 180)
Sights
Museums
"Point Alpha" is the name of a memorial place at the former inner German border.
People
- Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), German Jesuit scholar
- Peter Philipp von Dernbach (1619–1683), Prince-Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bamberg and Roman Catholic Diocese of Würzburg
- Adalbert Geheeb (1842–1909), pharmacist
- Moritz Goldschmidt (1863–1916), botanist
- Paul Geheeb (1870–1961), Progressive educationalist
- Eugene Buechel (1874–1954), missionary, linguist and ethnologist
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