page_title: Walluf
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Walluf / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Altes Rathaus in Oberwalluf
context_page_description: Walluf is a community in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. With 5,581 residents in its 6.74 square kilometer area, it is the most densely populated community in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis.
context_section_description: Walluf was formed on October 1, 1971 through the voluntary merger of the former municipalities Niederwalluf and Oberwalluf.  Through this merger, Walluf was able to preserve its independence even through the territorial reform of January 1, 1977.
  In 1932, the remains of a characteristic Ottonian tower castle were excavated in the immediate vicinity of the so-called Johannisfeld below the ruins of the Johanniskirchen.  Researchers noted the remains of Celtic, Roman and Carolingian residences and a palace. Pot shards indicated settlement dating back to the La Tène period (about 400 BC).
  The first documented use of the town’s name, as Waltaffa, was in about 770.  Winemaking has been documented at Walluf since that time (according to a document dating from 779), making it the Rheingau’s oldest winegrowing community.  The name Waldaffa or Waldaffen was used until the 13th century.  The name is of Germanic origin at means “forest water,” referring to the Wallufsbach creek. In the Middle Ages, this creek formed the boundary between the Rheingau and the Königssondergau to the east. Walluf lay along an old thoroughfare that led from Mainz, across a ford of the Rhine, up into the Limburg Basin.
  Near Walluf was also once found the easternmost entrance through the Rheingauer Gebück, an impenetrable 50 to 100 meter-wide “hedge” of stunted trees which formed a kind of border defense to protect against attacks from the north. The name comes from the German word bücken, meaning “to stoop,” a reference to the trees’ thick, low boughs. The Gebück, which extended as far as Lorch, was put in place by the Archbishopric of Mainz, which controlled the Rheingau. It also gave Walluf its nickname Pforte des Rheingaus (“Gateway to the Rheingau”). The village entrance, facing the Johannis fountain (Johannisbrunnen), was fortified with a great bulwark, which from its shape was known as the Backofen – “the Oven”.
  In the early Middle Ages, present-day Walluf was politically divided. Only the western part of the community near the present parish church belonged from the beginning to the Rheingau, under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Mainz. The larger district was originally east of the Wallufbach and did not belong to the Rheingau, but to Königssondergau. It eventually became the property of the Count of Lindau. After the construction of the Gebück, the residents gradually withdrew behind its protection on the west side of the Wallufbach.
  Another self-contained settlement arose above the riverside community of Walluf and was named Oberwalluf. The original community on the Rhine was thereafter known as Niederwalluf. Oberwalluf is first mentioned in documents from the 11th century as a branch of the Eltville parish. The town hall of the formerly independent community still remains at the market square. It was first built 1412 and rebuilt in 1616.  On its front is the coat of arms of Oberwalluf – the Wheel of Mainz to the left and to the right a key.
  The first mention of a church or chapel in Niederwalluf dates to the time of the Archbishop of Mainz Willigis (975-1011). The original Church of St. John (German Johanniskirche) was built around the year 1000, but now only ruins of it remain. There may have already been a church or baptistery as early as 744, because tradition names it as the place of the baptism that year of the later Benedictine monk Gerhardus, who was given the name “Fidelis.”
  On December 15, 1988, Walluf was the scene of a gas explosion, apparently caused by a switching error. The accident killed two people and forced the evacuation of 200 others.
caption: Old Town Hall in Oberwalluf
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