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'Balve' is a town in the district Märkischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the on the Hönne river, at the north end of the Sauerland near the Dortmund Airport.

Contents

History

Points of interest

Coat of arms

Twin cities

See also

External links

History

The first mention of Balve was probably made around 780, when Widukind owned a farm called Ballowa, although the first undisputed reference was in 864, when a blind girl from Balve was healed at the grave of the Saint Ludger in the crypt of Werden Abbey.
You can find Ballowa also in the Thidrekssaga, a northern myth. Ballowa is the home of two dwarfs who taught Weyland much about making iron weapons. Balve belonged to the county of Arnsberg at that time.
In 1358 it became the property of the Duchy of Westphalia, which belonged to the Archbishops of Cologne. In 1430 Balve was given the right to be called a city. During the Napoleonic period it belonged for a short time to Hesse, from 1802-1815, after which time it was added to the Kingdom of Prussia.
In 1975 during the local government reorgnization the city was enlarged by the addition of the former independent municipalities Asbeck, Beckum, Eisborn, Garbeck, Kesberg, Langenholthausen, Mellen and Volkringhausen from the abolished ''Amt Balve''.
Balve is the home of an Irish Folk festival.

Points of interest

The church of Saint Blaise (''Blasiuskirche'') was built in the 12th century and is an example of Romanesque architecture. First it was consecrated to Holy Mary. In the church can find bones from the holy Benedict of Nursia and Blaise. The octagon dome was built in 1910 from Prof. Buchkremer. In the church you can see a 400 year old monument for Hermann von Hatzfeld, a competitor to Gebhard von Waldburg-Trauchburg and the reformation in Germany.
The ''Luisenhütte'' is the only remaining blast furnace from the beginning of the 18th century which is still in workable condition and close to the castle ''Schloss Wocklum'', built in the 14th century.
The ''Balver Höhle'' is a huge cave which is used for many cultural events such as concerts and stage acting and the annual Schützenfest.
In the ''Hönnetal'', a narrow valley created by the river Hönne, you can find a lot of caves. The ''Reckenhöhle'' is a big cave with flowstone and 1478 ft long. Some experts found signs of cannibalism in some of these caves (1000-700 BC).
In Garbeck you can find the walls of an ''old germanic farm''.
In 2002 scientists found bones from eight kind of species of dinosaurs from the cretaceous.
Near to Balve you can find the Sorpesee.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms shows the historic connections of Balve. The eagle is taken from the arms of Arnsberg, and the black-and-white cross from those of Cologne. Both symbols were present in old seals of the city, the oldest known example of which dates from 1462. The coat of arms was officially granted on June 24 1911 and confirmed on February 6 1976 after the local government reorganization of 1975.
The bottom part of the coat of arms of the former ''Amt Balve'' was identical with the present town arms. The top half showed St. Peter, wearing a red coat and holding in his left hand a golden key and in his right a golden book. This coat of arms was granted on March 5 1957 and expired when the Amt was dissolved in 1975.

Twin cities

Balve is twinned with two european places:

★ Heerde, Netherlands

★ Roussay, France

See also

★ Hönne

External links

★ Official site

★ Reckenhöhle

★ Festspiele Balver Höhle

★ Schützenbruderschaft St. Sebastian

★ Naturpark Homert