Last modified: 2016-02-14 by ivan sache
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Flag of Schengen - Image by Zoltán Horváth, 22 May 2015
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The municipality of Schengen (4,313 inhabitants in 2014; 3,142 ha; municipal website) was established in 2011 as the merger of the former municipalities of Schengen, Burmerange and Wellenstein (history).
The village of Shengen is located near the tripoint where the borders of Germany, France, and Luxembourg meet. The largest settlement within the commune of Schengen is Remerschen after which the commune used to be named. The name of the commune was changed in 2006 to take advantage of the
Schengen's name recognition after the signing of the Schengen
Agreement (text) there in 1985.
[Wikipedia]
Esteban Rivera, 21 May 2015
The flag of Schengen (photo, photo, photo) is white with the municipal coat of arms in the middle and the place's name written beneath in black capital letters.
Esteban Rivera, 21 May 2015
Flag of Wellenstein - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 21 March 2007, after a photo kindly provided by the municipal administration of Wellenstein
Wellenstein is located in the valley of Mosel, which forms the border with Germany. It is made of the three traditional wine-growing villages of Bech-Kleinmacher (543 inhabitants), Schwebsingen (295 inh.) and Wellenstein (477 inh.).
Wellenstein has preserved its original design of a typical wine-growing village, with a central square planted with shadow trees, coloured
houses and arcades from the 16th century.
The Wellenstein vinyard is part ofDomaines de Vinsmoselle (website), which group the Luxembourgian vinyards of the valley of Mosel. The Wellenstein Wine-growers' Cellar, founded in 1930, produces every year 3.5 million liters of wine. The area of the vineyard is 230.2 ha.
Bech-Kleinmacher is the birth village of the painters Nico Klopp and Jos Sünnen. The two old wine-grower's houses, A Possen (built as Possenhaus in 1617 by the family Post, who owned it until 1965) and Muedelshaus, were transformed in 1972 into a museum (website), now encompasing seven buildings from the 17th-18th century century.
Schwebsingen has the single river port for leasure sport in the
Luxemburgian Mosel, increased in 1999 with eight pontoons and 250
mooring slots. On the first Sunday of September, the village celebrates
the Wine Festival, during which wine flows freely from the Wine
Fountain (aka the Grapes' Children Fountain).
The flag of Wellenstein is white with the village's coat of
arms in the middle.
The arms of Wellenstein, proposed by the State Heraldry Commission and approved on 19 Decemberby the Municipal Council, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 22 February 1985 by the Executive and published on 7 March 1985 in the official gazette of Luxembourg, No. 15.
The arms are described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per fess wavy, 1. Azure a three-leaved twirled grapevine bough or, 2. Barruly wavy argent and azure a lion gules armed and langued or the tail forked in saltire.
In the early medieval ages, the territory of today's Wellenstein
belonged to the Court of Remich and was therefore placed under the
direct authority of the Counts of Luxembourg. Wenceslas made of the
Court a Provostship; the seals from that time show the Count's arms.
The municipal arms of Wellenstein, designed by Marcel Lenertz, a member
of the State Heraldry Commission, recall the history, the geography and
the economy of the villages. The grapevine bough recalls wine-growing,
whereas the three leaves symbolize the three villages of
Bech-Kleinmacher, Schwebsingen and Wellenstein. The point of the shield
recalls the Count's arms; the barrulets are made wavy to symbolize the
Mosel.
[Former municipal website]
Wine was already produced in the valley of Mosel in the Gallo-Roman
times. Wine-growing and trading allowed the emergence of wealthy
lineage whose funerary mausoleums have been excavated in several places
of the region. These mausoleums, built on hillsides, have two floors;
the lower floor, mostly buried, is the true funerary room, decorated
with frescos, whereas the second floor is made of a smaller funerary
monument with the same rectangular shape.
The Bech-Kleinmacher mausoleum was found in 1950 on the place named
Frieteschwengert; it was completely excavated in 1987-1988 and recently
rebuilt. The funerary room is 6.10 x 4.30 m in size, with a 7.60 m
long underground corridor with several steps. The monument, built in
the beginning of the 4th century, was partially destroyed during the
invasions of the 5th century and was reused by the Franks in the late
7th - early 8th century. The exact use of the building by the
Franks is still unknown. The excavations made in 1987-1988 have yielded
hundreds of late Merovingian pottery and two very unusual coins from
the 680-720 period, includig a sceat of Anglo-Saxon or Friesian
origin.
Ivan Sache, 21 March 2007