Ilfeld

Ilfeld is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, 8mi north from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2012, it has been part of the municipality of Harztor.Establishments in 1911It contains a Lutheran church, a celebrated gymnasium, once a monasterial school, with a fine library. Until 1903 the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover ran a consistory in Ilfeld competent for the former County of Hohnstein. Furthermore there were manufactures of parquet-flooring, paper and plaster of Paris, while another industry in the town is brewing. It is also of some repute as a health resort.HistoryIlfeld and Neustadt in the Harz were at the core of a County, first named Bilstein, then Ilfeld and from 1160 on – by marriage – County of Hohnstein. By the end of the 13th century the Counts had split their territory among several lines, resulting from repeated divisions among the respective male heirs.In 1154 the place was first mentioned as Ilevelt in a document by the Saxon Duke Henry the Lion. Under impressions of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Jerusalem in 1172, Count Elger II of Ilfeld (-Hohnstein) and his wife Lutrude founded in 1189 the Premonstratensian monastery in Ilfeld, as confirmed by the German King Henry VI in 1190.