Nördlingen

Nördlingen
Image:NördlingenDanielBlickSüden.jpg Nördlingen, south view from the church tower Daniel
Coat of arms	Location
Image:Stadtwappennoerdlingen.jpg	Image:Karte Deutschland.png Image:Red pog2.svg
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Swabia
District	Donau-Ries
Lord Mayor	Hermann Faul (PWG)
Basic statistics
Area	68.10 km² (26.3 sq mi)
Elevation	441 m  (1447 ft)
Population	20,122  (30/12/2007)
- Density	295 /km² (765 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	DON (before 1972: NÖ)
Postal code	86720
Area code	09081
Website	www.noerdlingen.de Coordinates: 48°51′0″N 10°30′0″E / 48.85, 10.5

The title of this article contains the character ö. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Noerdlingen.

Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a giant meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War. Today it is one of only three towns in Germany that still has a completely established city wall, the other two being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl. Another tourist feature of this mediæval town is its 90m-steeple called "Daniel" being part of the Saint Georg's Church and made of an impact breccia called suevite containing shocked quartz.

It is twinned with the Markham, Ontario, in Canada, the City of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, in Australia and Riom, in France.

The remains of a Roman castellum, built in the year 85 and probably called Septemiacum, have been found under the city.^{[citation needed]} In 1998, Nördlingen celebrated its 1100-year-old history.

Nördlingen is also famous for the Scharlachrennen, a famous horse riding tournament that was first mentioned in 1463.

Nördlingen in Sport

The local sports club, the TSV 1861 Nördlingen, has a very successful basketball department with the mens and the womens team both in the 2nd Basketball Bundesliga. The clubs football team is traditionally the strongest side in northern Swabia. It's most successful former player is Gerd Müller, who was born and raised in Nördlingen.

Nördlingen in popular culture

The fairytale-ballet anime Princess Tutu is set in the fictional Kinkan Town, which is heavily based on Nördlingen.

Nördlingen was the town shown in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in the final scenes when the glass elevator is floating over a town.

Impact Diamonds

Stone buildings in the town contain millions of tiny diamonds, all less than 0.2 millimeters across. The impact that caused the Nördlinger Ries crater created an estimating 72000 tons of them when it impacted a local graphite deposit. Stone from this area was quarried and used to build the stone buildings.

See also

• Rintfleisch-Pogrom

References

Emsley, John (2001). NATURE'S BUILDING BLOCKS. Oxford University Press, pp. 99. ISBN 0-1985-0341-5.

External links

• Official website (English)
• Ries Crater Museum, Nördlingen
• Noerdlingen — a Bavarian town in a crater, website with further information and some pictures
• Scharlachrennen Nördlingen

bg:Ньордлинген

de:Nördlingen es:Nördlingen eo:Nördlingen fr:Nördlingen id:Nördlingen it:Nördlingen nl:Nördlingen ja:ネルトリンゲン no:Nördlingen pl:Nördlingen pt:Nördlingen ro:Nördlingen ru:Нёрдлинген fi:Nördlingen sv:Nördlingen vo:Nördlingen