Mönchberg

Mönchberg is a market community in the Miltenberg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (Administrative Community) of Mönchberg and a state-recognized climatic spa (Luftkurort).GeographyLocationMönchberg lies in the Bavarian part of the Spessart (range), 13 km from the district seat of Miltenberg, 30 km from Aschaffenburg, 69 km from Frankfurt am Main and 76 km from Würzburg.Neighbouring communitiesMönchberg borders in the west on Klingenberg and Erlenbach (with the outlying centres of Mechenhard and Streit), in the north on Elsenfeld and Eschau, in the east on Collenberg (on the Main) and in the south on Röllbach.SubdivisionsThe outlying centre, or Ortsteil, of Schmachtenberg, was amalgamated in 1978.HistoryThe community was originally a postal station on the way from Würzburg by way of Wertheim to Aschaffenburg. Its original name was Manno Gebur, meaning "Manno's Building", after the station's first owner. In the Middle Ages, Mönchberg was granted town rights along with its own jurisdiction by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The settlement in the Spessart earned its livelihood through forestry and handicrafts. Because the town lay far off the trade routes and so far from the settled areas on the Main, however, Mönchberg could develop no further in the end and therefore had to give up its town rights, which today are granted strictly to communities with a population of 5,000 or more. However, the community kept its market rights.