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68-715: As early as the Stone Age , there is evidence of human habitation in the Buchenloch , a nearby cave. In the Bronze Age the Dietzenley was used by the Celts as a refuge castle . In Roman times a temple and dwellings were known to have existed, and remnants of them have been preserved. One form of the name Gerolstein first appeared in connection with the building of the Löwenburg in 1115, which

136-728: A conference in anthropology held by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, at Burg Wartenstein Castle, which it then owned in Austria, attended by the same scholars that attended the Pan African Congress, including Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey , who was delivering a pilot presentation of her typological analysis of Early Stone Age tools, to be included in her 1971 contribution to Olduvai Gorge , "Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963." However, although

204-633: A district local history museum. In walking distance is the Gerolsteiner Dolomiten , a Devonian limestone reef formed by extinct Rugosa , Tabulata , and Stromatoporoids , comprising the Hustley, the Munterley, and the Auber, which dominate the surrounding landscape, looming 100 meters above the valley. On the outskirts of the outlying community of Lissingen stands the formerly moated Lissingen Castle , near

272-420: A hammerstone to obtain large and small pieces with one or more sharp edges. The original stone is called a core; the resultant pieces, flakes. Typically, but not necessarily, small pieces are detached from a larger piece, in which case the larger piece may be called the core and the smaller pieces the flakes . The prevalent usage, however, is to call all the results flakes, which can be confusing. A split in half

340-545: A lion rampant sable (black and standing on the left hind foot) armed and langued gules (red tongue, teeth, and claws viable) surmounted at the shoulder by a label of five points of the last. The town's arms are those formerly borne by the Counts of Gerolstein-Blankenheim , the former landholders, and are from as early as 1567 when they appeared in a seal used by the town's Schöffen (roughly "lay jurists"). The town has borne these arms since about 1890, but no official approval to do so

408-755: A new Lower Paleolithic tool, the hand axe, appeared. The earliest European hand axes are assigned to the Abbevillian industry , which developed in northern France in the valley of the Somme River ; a later, more refined hand-axe tradition is seen in the Acheulian industry , evidence of which has been found in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Some of the earliest known hand axes were found at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) in association with remains of H. erectus . Alongside

476-600: A separate Copper Age or Bronze Age. Moreover, the technologies included in those 'stages', as Goodwin called them, were not exactly the same. Since then, the original relative terms have become identified with the technologies of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic, so that they are no longer relative. Moreover, there has been a tendency to drop the comparative degree in favor of the positive: resulting in two sets of Early, Middle and Late Stone Ages of quite different content and chronologies. By voluntary agreement, archaeologists respect

544-752: A time known as the Copper Age (or more technically the Chalcolithic or Eneolithic, both meaning 'copper–stone'). The Chalcolithic by convention is the initial period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age . The transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 and 2500  BC for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia . The first evidence of human metallurgy dates to between

612-565: A wide range of techniques derived from multiple fields. The work of archaeologists in determining the paleocontext and relative sequence of the layers is supplemented by the efforts of geologic specialists in identifying layers of rock developed or deposited over geologic time; of paleontological specialists in identifying bones and animals; of palynologists in discovering and identifying pollen, spores and plant species; of physicists and chemists in laboratories determining ages of materials by carbon-14 , potassium-argon and other methods. The study of

680-457: Is Gerolstein's northernmost outlying centre, or Stadtteil , located three kilometres (about 1.86 miles) from the town center. Here, the Kyll river flows in a great arc around the mighty dolomite and basalt massif that juts out from the west, eastwards. The valley narrows and there is only enough room for the railway line, a field road, and the river itself. The road finds its way to Gerolstein over

748-526: Is associated with the remains of Neanderthal man . The earliest documented stone tools have been found in eastern Africa, manufacturers unknown, at the 3.3 million-year-old site of Lomekwi 3 in Kenya. Better known are the later tools belonging to an industry known as Oldowan , after the type site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The tools were formed by knocking pieces off a river pebble, or stones like it, with

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816-537: Is called bipolar flaking. Consequently, the method is often called "core-and-flake". More recently, the tradition has been called "small flake" since the flakes were small compared to subsequent Acheulean tools . The essence of the Oldowan is the making and often immediate use of small flakes. Another naming scheme is "Pebble Core Technology (PBC)": Pebble cores are ... artifacts that have been shaped by varying amounts of hard-hammer percussion. Various refinements in

884-474: Is in the nature of this boundary. If there is no distinct boundary, then the population of A suddenly stopped using the customs characteristic of A and suddenly started using those of B, an unlikely scenario in the process of evolution . More realistically, a distinct border period, the A/B transition, existed, in which the customs of A were gradually dropped and those of B acquired. If transitions do not exist, then there

952-458: Is known to have been issued. Gerolstein has fostered partnerships with the following places: Gerolstein station lies on the Eifelbahn railway line ( Cologne – Euskirchen –Gerolstein– Trier ) and has the following local passenger services: In Gerolstein, the historical Eifelquerbahn ( Cross Eifel Railway ) branches off, leading by way of Daun to Kaisersesch and on to Andernach , as does

1020-500: Is made up of 24 members elected by proportional representation at municipal elections, with the mayor as chairman. Seats in the council: Gerolstein's mayor is chosen every five years in a direct vote. The current officeholder is Uwe Schneider (SPD). On 7 June 1969, the municipalities of Bewingen, Hinterhausen, and Lissingen were amalgamated with Gerolstein. Büscheich, Gees, Michelbach, Müllenborn, Oos, and Roth were amalgamated on 1 December 1972. The town's coat of arms consists of

1088-612: Is no proof of any continuity between A and B. The Stone Age of Europe is characteristically in deficit of known transitions. The 19th and early 20th-century innovators of the modern three-age system recognized the problem of the initial transition, the "gap" between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. Louis Leakey provided something of an answer by proving that man evolved in Africa. The Stone Age must have begun there to be carried repeatedly to Europe by migrant populations. The different phases of

1156-555: Is now considered to be a facies of Acheulean , while Sangoan is a facies of Lupemban . Magosian is "an artificial mix of two different periods". Once seriously questioned, the intermediates did not wait for the next Pan African Congress two years hence, but were officially rejected in 1965 (again on an advisory basis) by Burg Wartenstein Conference #29, Systematic Investigation of the African Later Tertiary and Quaternary ,

1224-582: Is possible to speak of a general 'Stone Age' period for the whole of humanity, some groups never developed metal- smelting technology, and so remained in the so-called 'Stone Age' until they encountered technologically developed cultures. The term was innovated to describe the archaeological cultures of Europe. It may not always be the best in relation to regions such as some parts of the Indies and Oceania, where farmers or hunter-gatherers used stone for tools until European colonisation began. Archaeologists of

1292-508: Is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Gerolstein , to which the municipalities of Berlingen , Birresborn , Densborn , Duppach , Hohenfels-Essingen , Kalenborn-Scheuern , Kopp , Mürlenbach , Neroth , Pelm , Rockeskyll , and Salm belong. Gerolstein's subdivisions , besides the main town (also called Gerolstein), are Bewingen, Büscheich-Niedereich, Gees, Hinterhausen, Lissingen, Michelbach, Müllenborn, Oos, and Roth. The council

1360-425: Is used to describe the period that followed the Stone Age, as well as to describe cultures that had developed techniques and technologies for working copper alloys (bronze: originally copper and arsenic, later copper and tin) into tools, supplanting stone in many uses. Stone Age artifacts that have been discovered include tools used by modern humans, by their predecessor species in the genus Homo , and possibly by

1428-639: The 6th and 5th millennia  BC in the archaeological sites of the Vinča culture , including Majdanpek , Jarmovac , Pločnik , Rudna Glava in modern-day Serbia. Ötzi the Iceman , a mummy from about 3300 BC, carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In some regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa , the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age. The Middle East and Southeast Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BC. Europe, and

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1496-586: The Fauresmith and Sangoan technologies, and the Second Intermediate Period between Middle and Later, to encompass the Magosian technology and others. The chronologic basis for the definition was entirely relative. With the arrival of scientific means of finding an absolute chronology, the two intermediates turned out to be will-of-the-wisps . They were in fact Middle and Lower Paleolithic . Fauresmith

1564-617: The Kyll . The oldest parts of the building date to 1280, although the castle had already been mentioned in documents by 1212. Unlike most castles in the Eifel , it was not destroyed. In 1559, it was divided into an upper and lower castle. The lower castle is used as an event and cultural venue. The Evangelical Erlöserkirche ("Church of the Redeemer") was built between 1907 and 1913 by Franz Schwechten (the same architect who designed, among other things, Berlin ’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church ), and

1632-516: The Rhine river , was given to France, and wasn't returned to German control until 1815. As a landholder, Count Sternberg-Manderscheid acquired the holdings formerly belonging to the monasteries at Weissenau and Schussenried in Upper Swabia in the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , among other things, to offset his loss of Blankenheim, Jünkerath , Gerolstein and Dollendorf. It is known that water—from

1700-825: The Westeifelbahn , leading by way of Prüm to Sankt Vith (until 1918 a part of the German Empire , now part of Belgium ). For all local public transport three tariff systems apply: the Verkehrsverbund Region Trier (VRT), the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg , and for journeys crossing tariff zones, the NRW-Tarif . The mineral-water firm Gerolsteiner Brunnen has its headquarters in Gerolstein. The German army (Bundeswehr) Eifel barracks (Eifelkaserne) house

1768-500: The geologic time scale : The succession of these phases varies enormously from one region (and culture ) to another. The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (from Greek: παλαιός, palaios , "old"; and λίθος, lithos , "stone" lit. "old stone", coined by archaeologist John Lubbock and published in 1865) is the earliest division of the Stone Age. It covers the greatest portion of humanity's time (roughly 99% of "human technological history", where "human" and "humanity" are interpreted to mean

1836-582: The spring that once was used by the Celts and the Romans—was bottled and sold beginning in 1724. This still forms the basis for today's mineral water industry in Gerolstein. Late in the Second World War , in both 1944 and 1945, Gerolstein's status as a railway junction-town brought Allied air raids down on the town, and 80% of it was destroyed. Town rights were granted Gerolstein once again in 1953. Bewingen

1904-535: The 281st headquarters support battalion (Führungsunterstützungsbataillon 281). In addition to the attractions listed below, other things to see in and around Gerolstein include the dried-up maar called Papenkaule ; the Buchenloch, a 36-metre-long karst cave that served as a dwelling for Stone Age people; the Mühlsteinhöhlen ("millstone caves") or Eishöhlen ("ice caves") near Roth; a natural history museum; and

1972-786: The Bewinger Höhe (heights), thus shortening the way to the nearby middle centre . The local lay of the land was brought about by volcanic activity that created two volcanic peaks—the Kasselburg massif, with the Burlich and the Hahn (" Cock ") on the Kyll river's west bank, and the Rockeskyller Kopf on the east—whose volcanic minerals and deposits of lava , ash , and cinders during the Quaternary period narrowed

2040-659: The Church of the Redeemer, excavated and preserved the finds. The foundation and a hypocaust can now be viewed in a protective building. The Juddekirchhof , as it is known locally, is a Celtic-Roman worship site. It lies above Gerolstein on the Hustley , a part of the Gerolsteiner Dolomiten. The Roman Marcus Victorius Pellentius had this temple complex built in AD 124. The remains of the walls measure roughly 63 by 46 metres, within which

2108-572: The Nile valley. Consequently, they proposed a new system for Africa, the Three-stage System. Clark regarded the Three-age System as valid for North Africa; in sub-Saharan Africa, the Three-stage System was best. In practice, the failure of African archaeologists either to keep this distinction in mind, or to explain which one they mean, contributes to the considerable equivocation already present in

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2176-521: The Stone Age ended in a given area. In Europe and North America, millstones were in use until well into the 20th century, and still are in many parts of the world. The terms "Stone Age", "Bronze Age", and "Iron Age" are not intended to suggest that advancements and time periods in prehistory are only measured by the type of tool material, rather than, for example, social organization , food sources exploited, adaptation to climate, adoption of agriculture, cooking, settlement , and religion. Like pottery ,

2244-407: The Stone Age has never been limited to stone tools and archaeology, even though they are important forms of evidence. The chief focus of study has always been on the society and the living people who belonged to it. Useful as it has been, the concept of the Stone Age has its limitations. The date range of this period is ambiguous, disputed, and variable, depending upon the region in question. While it

2312-621: The Stone Age thus could appear there without transitions. The burden on African archaeologists became all the greater, because now they must find the missing transitions in Africa. The problem is difficult and ongoing. After its adoption by the First Pan African Congress in 1947, the Three-Stage Chronology was amended by the Third Congress in 1955 to include a First Intermediate Period between Early and Middle, to encompass

2380-462: The Stone Age. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, iron-working technologies were either invented independently or came across the Sahara from the north (see iron metallurgy in Africa ). The Neolithic was characterized primarily by herding societies rather than large agricultural societies, and although there was copper metallurgy in Africa as well as bronze smelting, archaeologists do not currently recognize

2448-432: The advent of metalworking . It therefore represents nearly 99.3% of human history. Though some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age, it is the melting and smelting of copper that marks the end of the Stone Age. In Western Asia , this occurred by about 3000 BC, when bronze became widespread. The term Bronze Age

2516-526: The decisions of the Pan-African Congress on Prehistory , which meets every four years to resolve the archaeological business brought before it. Delegates are actually international; the organization takes its name from the topic. Louis Leakey hosted the first one in Nairobi in 1947. It adopted Goodwin and Lowe's 3-stage system at that time, the stages to be called Early, Middle and Later. The problem of

2584-488: The discovery of these "Lomekwian" tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at several sites at Gona, Ethiopia , on sediments of the paleo- Awash River , which serve to date them. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity , or missing layer, which would have been from 2.9 to 2.7  mya . The oldest sites discovered to contain tools are dated to 2.6–2.55 mya. One of

2652-402: The earlier partly contemporaneous genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus . Bone tools have been discovered that were used during this period as well but these are rarely preserved in the archaeological record . The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of stone tools in use. The Stone Age is the first period in the three-age system frequently used in archaeology to divide

2720-533: The early Stone Age, when species prior to Homo may have manufactured tools. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia , where it is bordered by grasslands . The closest relative among the other living primates , the genus Pan , represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest, where

2788-400: The first to transition away from hunter-gatherer societies into the settled lifestyle of inhabiting towns and villages as agriculture became widespread . In the chronology of prehistory, the Neolithic era usually overlaps with the Chalcolithic ("Copper") era preceding the Bronze Age. The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus Homo , with the possible exception of

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2856-613: The foundations of many buildings, among which are two temples, are preserved. One temple was dedicated to Hercules while the other was dedicated to the Celtic goddess Caiva. In 1927 and 1928, remains of the temple complex were excavated. Gerolstein is also the name of a fictional country in Central Europe that is the subject of Jacques Offenbach 's opéra bouffe la Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein). In Les Mystères de Paris , by French author Eugene Sue ,

2924-702: The genus Homo ), extending from 2.5 or 2.6 million years ago, with the first documented use of stone tools by hominins such as Homo habilis , to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BC. The Paleolithic era ended with the Mesolithic , or in areas with an early neolithisation , the Epipaleolithic . At sites dating from the Lower Paleolithic Period (about 2,500,000 to 200,000 years ago), simple pebble tools have been found in association with

2992-576: The grasslands of the rift, Homo erectus , the predecessor of modern humans, found an ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a dependence on it, becoming a "tool-equipped savanna dweller". The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks; these are 3.4 million years old and were found in the Lower Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Archaeological discoveries in Kenya in 2015, identifying what may be

3060-569: The hand-axe tradition, there developed a distinct and very different stone-tool industry, based on flakes of stone: special tools were made from worked (carefully shaped) flakes of flint. In Europe, the Clactonian industry is one example of a flake tradition. The early flake industries probably contributed to the development of the Middle Paleolithic flake tools of the Mousterian industry , which

3128-651: The hereditary estate of Eich (Niedereich) belonged to the County of Gerolstein. On 13 May 1661, the hereditary estate was divided into Niedereich and Obereich. When the French occupied the Eifel in the 18th century, the Counts lost all their holdings. After the French were driven out, the Eifel became Prussian . In 1815, the Prussian government changed Obereich's name to Büscheich. Gerolstein

3196-433: The intermediate periods were gone, the search for the transitions continued. In 1859 Jens Jacob Worsaae first proposed a division of the Stone Age into older and younger parts based on his work with Danish kitchen middens that began in 1851. In the subsequent decades this simple distinction developed into the archaeological periods of today. The major subdivisions of the Three-age Stone Age cross two epoch boundaries on

3264-453: The journal Annals of the South African Museum . By then, the dates of the Early Stone Age, or Paleolithic , and Late Stone Age, or Neolithic ( neo = new), were fairly solid and were regarded by Goodwin as absolute. He therefore proposed a relative chronology of periods with floating dates, to be called the Earlier and Later Stone Age. The Middle Stone Age would not change its name, but it would not mean Mesolithic . The duo thus reinvented

3332-508: The land, as well as Steffeln, Niederbettingen, and Bewingen. In the Middle Ages , the lords at Kasselburg (a castle in Pelm ) and those at Castle Gerhardstein (Gerolstein) held lands and tithing rights in the village. In the time of French rule, beginning in 1794, Bewingen was assigned to the Mairie ("Mayoralty") of Rockeskyll , and the village remained within the Bürgermeisterei (also "Mayoralty") of Rockeskyll up to Prussian times. The formerly self-administering municipality of Bewingen

3400-638: The late 19th and early 20th centuries CE, who adapted the three-age system to their ideas, hoped to combine cultural anthropology and archaeology in such a way that a specific contemporaneous tribe could be used to illustrate the way of life and beliefs of the people exercising a particular Stone-Age technology. As a description of people living today, the term Stone Age is controversial. The Association of Social Anthropologists discourages this use, asserting: To describe any living group as 'primitive' or 'Stone Age' inevitably implies that they are living representatives of some earlier stage of human development that

3468-462: The literature. There are in effect two Stone Ages, one part of the Three-age and the other constituting the Three-stage. They refer to one and the same artifacts and the same technologies, but vary by locality and time. The three-stage system was proposed in 1929 by Astley John Hilary Goodwin, a professional archaeologist, and Clarence van Riet Lowe , a civil engineer and amateur archaeologist, in an article titled "Stone Age Cultures of South Africa" in

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3536-420: The main protagonist, Rodolph, is the Grand Duke of Gerolstein. Stone Age Paleolithic Epipalaeolithic Mesolithic Neolithic The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 4000 BC and 2000 BC, with

3604-420: The majority of humankind has left behind. In the 1920s, South African archaeologists organizing the stone tool collections of that country observed that they did not fit the newly detailed Three-Age System. In the words of J. Desmond Clark : It was early realized that the threefold division of culture into Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages adopted in the nineteenth century for Europe had no validity in Africa outside

3672-403: The most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene , where prior to their discovery tools were thought to have evolved only in the Pleistocene . Excavators at the locality point out that: ... the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers  ... The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of stone tools to

3740-410: The oldest evidence of hominin use of tools known to date, have indicated that Kenyanthropus platyops (a 3.2 to 3.5-million-year-old Pliocene hominin fossil discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya, in 1999) may have been the earliest tool-users known. The oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana , northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to

3808-468: The presence thereof include ... gaps in the geological record. The species that made the Pliocene tools remains unknown. Fragments of Australopithecus garhi , Australopithecus aethiopicus , and Homo , possibly Homo habilis , have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. In July 2018, scientists reported the discovery in China of the known oldest stone tools outside Africa, estimated at 2.12 million years old. Innovation in

3876-479: The primates evolved. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. Starting from about 4 million years ago ( mya ) a single biome established itself from South Africa through the rift, North Africa, and across Asia to modern China. This has been called "transcontinental 'savannahstan ' " recently. Starting in

3944-482: The remains of what may have been the earliest human ancestors. A somewhat more sophisticated Lower Paleolithic tradition, known as the Chopper chopping tool industry, is widely distributed in the Eastern Hemisphere. This tradition is thought to have been the work of the hominin species named Homo erectus . Although no such fossil tools have yet been found, it is believed that H. erectus probably made tools of wood and bone as well as stone. About 700,000 years ago,

4012-431: The rest of Asia became post-Stone Age societies by about 4000 BC. The proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BC, when gold, copper, and silver made their entrance. The peoples of the Americas notably did not develop a widespread behavior of smelting bronze or iron after the Stone Age period, although the technology existed. Stone tool manufacture continued even after

4080-477: The river valley. The place-name ending —ingen points to early Frankish settlement. Bewingen was first mentioned in a document in 1218 as a holding of the church and monastery of Niederehe. From that mention it is known that the Brothers Theoderich, Alexander, and Albero, from Castle Kerpen, established an endowment for the Premonstratensian nuns in the years between 1162 and 1175. The next documentary mention came in 1282, when "Gerhard VI of Blankenheim" acquired

4148-486: The scientific study of the lithic reduction of the raw materials and methods used to make the prehistoric artifacts that are discovered. Much of this study takes place in the laboratory in the presence of various specialists. In experimental archaeology , researchers attempt to create replica tools, to understand how they were made. Flintknappers are craftsmen who use sharp tools to reduce flintstone to flint tool . In addition to lithic analysis, field prehistorians use

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4216-403: The technique of smelting ore is regarded as the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age . The first highly significant metal manufactured was bronze , an alloy of copper and tin or arsenic , each of which was smelted separately. The transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age was a period during which modern people could smelt copper, but did not yet manufacture bronze,

4284-418: The timeline of human technological prehistory into functional periods, with the next two being the Bronze Age and the Iron Age , respectively. The Stone Age is also commonly divided into three distinct periods: the earliest and most primitive being the Paleolithic era; a transitional period with finer tools known as the Mesolithic era; and the final stage known as the Neolithic era. Neolithic peoples were

4352-404: The transitions in archaeology is a branch of the general philosophic continuity problem, which examines how discrete objects of any sort that are contiguous in any way can be presumed to have a relationship of any sort. In archaeology, the relationship is one of causality . If Period B can be presumed to descend from Period A, there must be a boundary between A and B, the A–B boundary. The problem

4420-472: The typology of the stone tools combined with the relative sequence of the types in various regions provide a chronological framework for the evolution of humanity and society. They serve as diagnostics of date, rather than characterizing the people or the society. Lithic analysis is a major and specialised form of archaeological investigation. It involves the measurement of stone tools to determine their typology, function and technologies involved. It includes

4488-470: Was amalgamated with the town of Gerolstein in 1969. One of the oldest buildings is the small chapel consecrated to Saint Brice , which underwent repairs in 1744 and 1745. Its Late Gothic choir suggests that there was an earlier church here, built perhaps around 1500. Büscheich-Niedereich lies roughly 5 km from the town centre. In 1352, Büscheich had its first documentary mention; Niedereich's first documentary mention did not come until 1398. In 1501,

4556-446: Was consecrated on 15 October 1913. The interior is decorated with broad gold mosaics, round arches, and a commanding cupola. Villa Sarabodis is the name given the ruins of a Roman country house – villa rustica – which were unearthed in the course of preparatory work for building the Church of the Redeemer in 1907 and have been dated to the first century AD. The Kirchenbauverein Berlin ("Berlin Church-Building Association"), which built

4624-407: Was then named the Burg Gerhardstein . Town rights were granted to Gerolstein in 1336. In 1691, the town was almost completely destroyed when it was liberated from French occupation by troops from the Duchy of Jülich . After reconstruction, a devastating fire burnt down the town in 1708, and again in 1784. In the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville , Gerolstein, along with all of the area on the left bank of

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