Grünhain-Beierfeld

Grünhain-Beierfeld is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony, Germany lying 8 km east of Aue. It came into being on 1 January 2005 through the merger of the town of Grünhain and the community of Beierfeld.GeographyLocationThe town lies in the northeast of the district. The highest point in the municipal area is the Spiegelwald (forest) at 738 m above sea level.Neighbouring communitiesIn the north, the town borders on Zwönitz, in the east on Elterlein, in the south on Raschau, in the southwest on Schwarzenberg and in the west on Bernsbach and Lößnitz.Constituent communitiesGrünhain-Beierfeld has three of these: Beierfeld Grünhain WaschleitheHistoryBeierfeldThe area around Beierfeld was settled in the 12th century. As with most other places in the Ore Mountains, Beierfeld was laid out as a forest village. The town’s name hints at Bavarian colonists (the first two syllables, “Beier” are pronounced the same way as the German word Bayer, which means “Bavarian”). In 1233, Beierfeld became a monastic domain with Meinhard II of Wirbene’s endowment of the Grünhain Monastery. The abbot at Grünhain thereby held jurisdiction over the community until the Reformation and he received rent and socage from it.