Bad Wilsnack | |
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Location of Bad Wilsnack within Prignitz district | |
Coordinates: 52°57′00″N11°56′59″E / 52.95000°N 11.94972°E | |
Country | Germany |
State | Brandenburg |
District | Prignitz |
Municipal assoc. | Bad Wilsnack/Weisen |
Subdivisions | 8 Stadtteile |
Government | |
• Mayor (2024–29) | Martina Richter [1] |
Area | |
• Total | 79.21 km2 (30.58 sq mi) |
Elevation | 27 m (89 ft) |
Population (2022-12-31) [2] | |
• Total | 2,588 |
• Density | 33/km2 (85/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 19336 |
Dialling codes | 038791 |
Vehicle registration | PR |
Website | www.bad-wilsnack.de |
Bad Wilsnack (until 1929 Wilsnack) is a small town in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany. The former pilgrimage site of the Holy Blood of Wilsnack has been officially recognised as a spa town (Bad) since 1929. It is the administrative seat of the Amt ("collective municipality") Bad Wilsnack/Weisen.
The town is situated within the Prignitz historical region in the northwest of Brandenburg, roughly halfway between Berlin and Hamburg. It is located on the Karthane river, which flows into the Elbe at nearby Wittenberge. A few kilometers to the south is the confluence of the Havel and Elbe rivers. The neighbouring municipality of Rühstädt is famous for its high number of resident white storks.
Bad Wilsnack station is a stop on the Berlin–Hamburg Railway. The townscape is marked by the large St Nicholas Church of the Holy Blood and several timber framed houses.
Wilsnack in the Margraviate of Brandenburg was first mentioned in 1384. The town became a pilgrimage destination after being burned down on 15 August 1383 during a raid by the Mecklenburg captain and robber baron Heinrich von Bülow against the Bishopric of Havelberg. It was believed that after the fire some hosts were found to have survived, but had the appearance of being bloodied. The Holy Blood of Wilsnack was authenticated when the Havelberg bishop Dietrich Man went to consecrate the hosts as a precaution, and the central one overflowed with blood, according to later accounts. Reformers like Jan Hus and Nicholas of Cusa later discouraged pilgrimage to Wilsnack, questioning the nature of these wonder hosts and suspecting fraud.
The pilgrimage led from St. Mary's Church in Berlin to Wilsnack. Numerous pilgrims, among them Elector Frederick II of Brandenburg went to the rebuilt town to see the miraculous hosts; their revenues enabled the citizens to construct the large St Nicholas Church for their worship, a larger building than otherwise needed in the parish. The pilgrims who went to Wilsnack bought pewter trinkets to indicate that they had reached the site. These emblems were often in the form of three hosts connected together. Seen in numerous medieval paintings, the tokens have turned up in archaeological digs from the area. The numbers of pilgrims were said to rival those to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Despite controversy, the pilgrimages continued until 1552, when the hosts were destroyed during the Protestant Reformation.
The story of the bleeding hosts was depicted in a series of woodcuts made during the Middle Ages. The town used the image on emergency money which it printed and issued during the hyperinflation crisis of the 1920s (Notgeld).
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Elections were held in 2014:
The Havel is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. The 325 kilometres (202 mi) long Havel is a right tributary of the Elbe. However, the direct distance from its source to its mouth is only 94 kilometres (58 mi). For much of its length, the Havel is navigable; it provides an important link in the waterway connections between the east and west of Germany, as well as beyond.
Prignitz is a Kreis (district) in northwestern Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts, clockwise from the north, are Ludwigslust-Parchim, Ostprignitz-Ruppin (Brandenburg), Stendal (Saxony-Anhalt), and Lüchow-Dannenberg.
The Altmark is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the March of Brandenburg, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by Otto von Bismarck, a native of Schönhausen near Stendal.
Wittenberge is a town of eighteen thousand people on the middle Elbe in the district of Prignitz, Brandenburg, Germany.
Perleberg is the capital of the district of Prignitz, located in the northwest of the German state of Brandenburg. The town received city rights in 1239 and today has about 12,000 inhabitants. Located in a mostly agricultural area, the town has a long history of troops being stationed there and as an administrative center for local government.
Havelberg is a town in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the Havel, and part of the town is built on an island in the centre of the river. The two parts were incorporated as a town in 1875. It has a population of 6,436 (2020).
Lenzen (Elbe) is a small town in the district of Prignitz, in Brandenburg, Germany. The town lies to the north of the Löcknitz River, not far from where the Löcknitz flows into the Elbe. It is part of the Amt Lenzen-Elbtalaue.
Wittstock/Dosse is a town in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in north-western Brandenburg, Germany.
Heiligengrabe is a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
Weisen is a municipality in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It consists of the main village Weisen, the small settlement Waldhaus and the village Schilde.
The Bishopric of Havelberg was a Roman Catholic diocese founded by King Otto I of Germany in 946, from 968 a suffragan to the Archbishops of Magedeburg. A Prince-bishopric (Hochstift) from 1151, Havelberg as a result of the Protestant Reformation was secularised and finally annexed by the margraves of Brandenburg in 1598.
The Holy Blood of Wilsnack was the name given to three hosts, which survived a fire in 1383 that burned the church and village to the ground. The hosts were thus seen as miraculous. The relics became the destination of medieval religious pilgrimages to Bad Wilsnack, Germany for nearly two centuries. Revenue from the many pilgrims enabled the town to build the large St. Nicholas' Church at the site. The hosts were destroyed by reformers in 1558 during the Protestant Reformation.
Dietrich Man, known as Dietrich II, was Bishop of Havelberg from 1370 to 1385.
Amt Bad Wilsnack/Weisen is an Amt in the district of Prignitz, in Brandenburg, Germany. Its seat is in Bad Wilsnack.
In the Slavic revolt of 983, Polabian Slavs, Wends, Lutici and Obotrite tribes, that lived east of the Elbe River in modern north-east Germany overthrew an assumed Ottonian rule over the Slavic lands and rejected Christianization under Emperor Otto I.
The Plattenburg is a water castle in the independent municipality of Plattenburg in the German district of Prignitz in northwestern Brandenburg. It was first documented in 1319, making it the oldest surviving water castle in northern Germany.
Glöwen station is the station of the town of Glöwen, which is in the municipality of Plattenburg and the German state of Brandenburg. It lies on the Berlin–Hamburg Railway and was opened in 1846. The Glöwen–Havelberg railway branched at the station from 1890 to 1971. The former Light Railway of the District of West and East Prignitz from Viesecke, a small town now in the municipality of Plattenburg, ended in Glöwen from 1900 to 1967. The Neoclassical entrance, which was built at the same time as the line, has heritage protection.
Linum is a village of the municipality Fehrbellin in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district of Brandenburg, Germany. It is sometimes called the "stork village" (Storchendorf) of Linum.
Bad Wilsnack station is a railway station in the municipality of Bad Wilsnack, located in the Prignitz district in Brandenburg, Germany.
Media related to Bad Wilsnack at Wikimedia Commons