Gillenbeuren

Gillenbeuren is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Ulmen, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in a dale in the southern Eifel.HistoryIn 1220, Gillenbeuren had its first documentary mention. At that time, a chapel was built, and the village was called Gildonburun. In the St. Florin Foundation (Koblenz) provost’s exchange agreement on 17 March 1250 it is mentioned that the Foundation held the tithing rights to Gillenbeuren, until then held by his chapter. The village was also held by the Count of Manderscheid-Blankenheim as a fief. In 1280, Elisabeth von “Wuninberch” (Winneburg) and her son Wirich sold a year’s returns in Gillenbeuren.Still standing today at the graveyard is an old stone cross, chiselled into which is the name Goelebaevren. In the Taxa generalis subsidorum cleri Trevirensis from about 1330, Gillenbeuren is listed as a parish of the rural chapter of Zell. In 1462, “Johann Herr zu Winnenburg und Beilstein” (“John, Lord at Winnenburg and Beilstein”) pledged the village of Gillenbeuren to Count Wilhelm von Blankenheim.