Kirschroth

Kirschroth is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Kirschroth is a state-recognized tourism community and a winegrowing village. Kirschroth lies in a side valley of the Nahe. Kirschroth's character stems from its agricultural heritage, but it is nowadays a state-recognized tourism resort. It sits at an elevation of 260 m above sea level, making it one of Rhineland-Palatinate's highest winegrowing villages. The municipal area measures 764 ha, of which 284 ha is wooded (140 ha of this is municipal woodland) and roughly 80 ha is given over to vineyards. The vineyards of the Kirschrother Wildgrafenberg border the village on the north and west. Clockwise from the north, Kirschroth's neighbours are the municipalities of Meddersheim, Bärweiler, Hundsbach, Limbach and Merxheim, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district. In 1364, Kirschroth had its first documentary mention as Rodde. It is certain, though, that it had already existed for quite some time, likely having arisen in the Early Middle Ages. Traces of human habitation may indeed stretch all the way back to Celtic and Roman times. The village was held by the Archbishops of Mainz well into the 12th century before being pledged to the Counts of Saarbrücken, and then about 1275 to the Waldgraves at the Kirburg. They then held it until the French Revolution in 1789. It was administered by a Schultheiß from Mainz who was subject to the castle count at Disibodenberg, or as of 1240 in Sobernheim and as of 1279 at Castle Böckelheim. In 1239, there was a serious dispute between the Archbishop and the counts in the Nahe area who opposed the ecclesiastical prince's quest for power in what they considered their domain. The local lordship over Kirschroth changed many times within the Waldgravial – and beginning in 1408 Waldgravial-Rhinegravial – family, because individual lines sometimes died out, arising from which were complicated divisions of inheritance.