Ormont - History

History

In Roman times a road led from Losheim to Ormont, which to this day bears the name Walenstraße. The word Walen comes from the Old High German walahisc, which meant “Romance- (but originally Celtic-) speaking”. It is cognate with the English word “Welsh”.

In 893, Ormont had its first documentary mention when Prüm Abbey’s directory of holdings, the Prümer Urbar, said that all inhabitants of Oremunte were to make hay for Prüm Abbey.

The boundary description mentioned above (see Name), however, is believed to date from 801, but this cannot be definitively confirmed. What can be said, though, is that Ormont can look back on a history more than 1,200 years old.

In the directory of holdings from 1222, the reader learns that the Count of Vianden was enfeoffed by the Prüm Church with “the estate at Oremunte”. Almost a century later, in 1320, Friedrich II of Blankenheim was enfeoffed by King John of Bohemia, who was also Duke of Luxembourg, with the village of Oyrmunde. Friedrich’s wife was “Else, Frau von Neuenstein” (see Neuenstein below).

In 1329, the brothers Arnold I and Gerhard V of Blankenheim bought the estate of Neuenstein (as discussed later, the castle had not yet been built). Ever since, Neuenstein’s history has been bound with Ormont’s. In the early 14th century, Ormont was therefore Luxembourgish domain and was held by the Lords of Blankenheim as a fief.

In 1361, Ormont and Neuenstein passed by way of exchange to Johann I of Schleiden and his brother Konrad of Schleiden, Provost at St. Gereon in Cologne. About 1365, Konrad built Castle Neuenstein.

In 1450, Ormont and Neuenstein changed lords once again, ending up under the Counts of Manderscheid-Schleiden. They were a mighty and influential dynasty with good relations with the Imperial court, and they significantly shaped the Eifel’s history in the Late Middle Ages.

After this comital line died out in 1593, Count Philipp von der Mark held Ormont and Neuenstein unrightfully for the next 20 years. From 1613 to 1719, the two centres were held by the House of Manderscheid-Gerolstein (Kronenburg). From 1719 on, they were then held by Manderscheid-Blankenheim-Gerolstein (Kronenburg).

The last regent was Augusta, Imperial Countess at Manderscheid. She fled in 1794 before French Revolutionary troops with her husband, Christian von Sternberg, to his holdings in Bohemia.

In the autumn of 1794, the French occupied Ormont and Neuenstein. Ormont was grouped into the Department of Ourthe in the Arrondissement of Malmedy and the Canton of Kronenburg. More locally, it was administered by the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Hallschlag.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815, the village passed to Prussia as part of the Rhine Province, becoming a self-administering municipality in the Amtsbezirk of Stadtkyll in the Prüm district.

Late in the Second World War, the village sustained heavy damage during the Battle of the Bulge. The local soldiers’ graveyard recalls this difficult time of war in early 1945.

In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1970, Ormont passed to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, and ever since it has belonged to the Daun district, which has since been given the name Vulkaneifel.