Mörlen

Mörlen is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.GeographyLocationThe community lies in the Westerwald between Limburg and Siegen on the boundary with North Rhine-Westphalia. The community lies in a hollow on a south slope on the course of the Kleine Nister, and is one of the richest communities in woodlands in the Westerwaldkreis. Mörlen belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Marienberg, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town.HistoryMörlen is among the oldest settled centres in the Upper Westerwald. While the brook name Nigra Morlaha had already been mentioned in writings from 914 and 1048, the actual community had its first documentary mention on 13 November 1262 in a document from the Marienstatt Abbey. The church of Mörlen appears in a charter granted by Emperor Frederick II on 19th October 1213 to the Teutonic Knights.PoliticsCommunity councilThe council is made up of 12 council members who were elected in a majority vote in a municipal election on 13 June 2004.Culture and sightseeingBuildingsThe community’s centrepiece is the Catholic parish church, Maria Empfängnis (“Immaculate Conception”). It was built in 1866 and expanded in 1882 and 1949. In 2003, it was fundamentally renovated.