Waldbröl

Waldbröl is a town in the southern part of the Oberbergischer Kreis (upper Berg county), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.GeographyLocationThe town is located on the slopes of the Nutscheid range of hills and is part of the Bergisches Land Nature Park. It is about 64km east of the city of Cologne.Neighbouring municipalitiesThe town of Waldbröl itself is much larger than the municipal centres of all its neighbouring municipalities and serves as their local shopping town and source of local services. Beginning with Reichshof in the North and moving on clockwise, the neighbouring municipalities are Morsbach, Windeck, Ruppichteroth and Nümbrecht.Municipal subdivisionsIn addition to Waldbröl itself, which has a population of about 11,000, there are 64 separate sub-districts:HistoryIn 1131, the place was mentioned for the first time, as Waltprugele in a papal deed of ownership for the St. Cassius abbey in Bonn. In this document Pope Innocent II confirmed the Church's ownership and the ecclesiastical tithe (which later evolved into land tax and wealth tax). Back then, this housing estate belonged to the sphere of influence of the first counts of Berg, as well as of the first counts of Sayn. In the same year, construction began on a new Protestant church, whose steeple survives to the present day.In 1174, Waldbröl came under the governance of Homburg, which was owned by the counts of Sayn. However, the property situation between the counts of Berg and of Sayn remained controversial.The first reference to a Waldbröl citizen was in a document of 1212, when a priest named Wolradu resided there and made a donation to St. Michael's abbey in the Berg county.