Litzendorf | |
|---|---|
 Town hall | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Litzendorf within Bamberg district  | |
 Location of Litzendorf | |
  Litzendorf  Litzendorf | |
| Coordinates:49°54′N11°0′E / 49.900°N 11.000°E /49.900; 11.000 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Bavaria |
| Admin. region | Oberfranken |
| District | Bamberg |
| Subdivisions | 8Ortsteile |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–26) | Wolfgang Möhrlein[1] (CSU) |
| Area | |
• Total | 25.85 km2 (9.98 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 311 m (1,020 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 6,307 |
| • Density | 244.0/km2 (631.9/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 96123 |
| Dialling codes | 09505 |
| Vehicle registration | BA |
| Website | www.litzendorf.de |
Litzendorf is amunicipality in theUpper Franconian district ofBamberg. Owing to administrative reform it has been a unified community since 1 May 1978.
Litzendorf and most of its outlying centres lie in the Ellern Valley, which is surrounded by wooded heights with the Bamberg district's two highest elevations, the Geisberg (585 m) and the Stammberg (560 m).
Litzendorf's namesake centre is not the biggest of itsOrtsteile. Pödeldorf is somewhat bigger. The community has these centres, each given here with its own population figure:
 | Kunigundenruh | 2 inhabitants | |
 |  | Litzendorf | 1,492 inhabitants |
 |  | Lohndorf | 385 inhabitants |
 |  | Melkendorf | 757 inhabitants |
 |  | Naisa | 747 inhabitants |
 |  | Pödeldorf | 1,753 inhabitants |
 | Schammelsdorf | 784 inhabitants | |
 |  | Tiefenellern | 210 inhabitants |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Memmelsdorf | Scheßlitz | Königsfeld | Heiligenstadt | Strullendorf | Hauptsmoorwald |
The derivation of the nameLitzendorf is unclear. It could have come from theSlavic wordlyko ("bast") or from theGermanic wordlitzel ("little").
InMerovingian andCarolingian times, when the villages, which were likely ofFrankish andSlavic origin, arose, the Ellern Valley was still heavily wooded.
The name Litzendorf first cropped up in 1129 in a document from Bishop of Bamberg Otto, which mentions anOtgoz von Licindorf. Otgoz belonged to the lower subservient nobility and was a court and administrative official toSaint Otto.
Litzendorf later belonged to the HighMonastery at Bamberg, but since theReichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the community has belonged toBavaria.
Within municipal limits, 3,507 inhabitants were counted in 1970, 4,825 in 1987 and 5,907 in 2000. In 2005 it was 6,179, and in 2007 6,106.
In 1999, municipal tax revenue, converted toeuros, amounted to €2,279,000 of which business taxes (net) amounted to €206,000.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2021) |
The community council is made up of 21 members, listed here by party or voter community affiliation, and also with the number of seats that each holds:
| CSU | SPD | GRÜNE | Christliche Wählervereinigung | Total | |
| 2002 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
(as of election on 3 March 2002)
Litzendorf's arms might heraldically be described thus: Party per pale Or and azure, Or a lion rampant sable armed and langued gules, thereover a bendlet argent, azure a helm argent with nasal dexter.
The Bamberg lion stands for the High Monastery's former overlordship in Litzendorf. The helmet stands for theministeriales of Litzendorf, who were active in the 12th century, at a time when they bore no arms.
The "Franconian Road of Sculptures" between the villages of Tiefenellern, Lohndorf and Litzendorf came into being in 1994 and is asculpture exhibit in the middle of the Ellern Valley countryside.
TheSängerehrenmal for the dead and fallen of theFranconianSängerbund ("Singers’ League") was built in 1963 on a plot of higher ground above Melkendorf. The memorial consists of twelvelimestone columns set in a circle and analtarlikesarcophagus. In the memorial stone are memorial books with the names of the dead from the originally 12, now 13, singing circles. Thewrought iron altar wing bears theLatin inscriptionMortui vivimus – "We, the dead, live".
TheJungfernhöhle ("Maids’ Cave") near Tiefenellern is a Neolithicarchaeological site. Digs here brought to light use of the cave by four cultures in theNew Stone Age and by almost all subsequent ones. The nameJungfernhöhle refers to the human remains found here, which were overwhelmingly female.
On the road from Litzendorf to Geisfeld are found earlyCelticbarrows. The group of mounds is completely surrounded by forest. The barrows’ diameters range from 8 to 25 metres. During digs in the 19th century, material from theBronze Age and the earlyIron Age was unearthed.
TheBaroquePfarrkirche St. Wenzeslaus in Litzendorf was built between 1715 and 1718 by master builderJohann Dientzenhofer. It is built from shiny, gold-coloured iron-bearingsandstone blocks and can be seen far from the community.
The choice of theBohemian duke and nationalSaint Wenceslas as the church's patron likely goes back to Prince-Bishop Lambrecht von Brun, who was a close adviser to EmperorKarl IV, who lived inPrague, and also chancellor to his son Wenceslas (Wenzel). After Litzendorf was raised to parish in 1406, there arose a new building whose four-storey choir tower still stands today.
When damage to the building began to show in the late 17th century, there was hesitation about repairing it. Only in 1702, after Johann Christoph Reinhard had been made the parish priest and set himself to the business at hand was something done about it. He wanted something special, and therefore he had the Bamberg court master builder Johann Dientzenhofer add a suitable nave onto the choir tower.
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