DEUTSCHLAND | GERMANY |
Bundesland: Freistaat Sachsen | Saxony |
Landkreis: Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge |
Stadt Wehlen is situated at an elevation of 110–210 m in the narrow valley of the river Elbe at the entrance to the Sächsische Schweiz ("Saxon Switzerland") region, about 30 km southeast of Dresden and about 12 km east of the district town Pirna. The municipality consists of the localities (city borroughs) Stadt Wehleb, Dorf Wehlen and Zeichen on the right bank of the river Elbe, and Pötzscha on the left bank. The municipality has a population of about 1,600 (2020).
The earliest written document that mentions Wylin date from 1269. The settlement originated below a castle that margrave Heinrich III of Meißen in 1245 had obtained from the king of Bohemia. In 1346 Wehlen was already mentioned as a town ('civitas'). The castle was abandoned in 1543 and thereafter fell into dereliction. The inhabitants lived from shipbuilding, handicrafts and quarrying. As early as 1547, Wehlen was referred to as district town ("Amtsstädtlein"), so that the manorial rule was not exercised by a manor but by an office, initially Lohmen, later Hohnstein. The railway station at Pöztscha (today part of Stadt Wehlen) was opened in 1848.
The Protestant (Lutheran) Stadtkirche (town church) [left, barely visible]
was rebuilt in 1882/83 in place of an older church that had been built in 1515. The architect was Christian Friedrich Arnold.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadt_Wehlen;
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Kulturdenkmale_in_Stadt_Wehlen]