Ilsfeld

Sister cities

• Auenstein

History

The territory of Ilsfeld has been settled almost without interruption since the Mesolithic and Neolithic. After the Franks expanded into the area, five ancient Alemannic settlements were subsumed in a royal court location that is the basis of the present-day town. At the former settlement of Gendach, on the Schozach near Ilsfeld, there was a small motte and bailey castle, no traces of which remain. In 1368 Ilsfeld became the property of Württemberg; by about 1460 it had become a fief of the Vogt or reeve of Lauffen am Neckar. It was a border territory; to the north, Talheim had become the property of the Teutonic Knights, and beyond that lay for example Flein, which belonged to the Imperial City of Heilbronn, Stettenfels Castle, property of the Electorate of the Palatinate, and the County of Löwenstein. In 1450, during Count Ulrich V's war against 30 Swabian Imperial Cities, Ilsfeld was attacked by Heilsbronn forces; the village was laid waste, with 40 people killed and 300 head of livestock removed. In 1456 the Württembergischer Landgraben (Württemberg Ditch) was created as a border fortification running north of Ilsfeld, with a defensive tower, the Landturm, north of the hamlet of Wüstenhausen. In 1460 the Battle of Wüstenhausen took place there, with Duke Ulrich defeating the forces of Frederick the Victorious, Elector Palatine. The many battles in the 15th century are probably why Ilsfeld was surrounded by a high wall with ten towers. Ilsfeld suffered greatly in the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1519, Duke William IV of Bavaria quartered his army there; during the Thirty Years' War there were outbreaks of plague in 1626 and 1634 and Imperial troops were quartered there in 1638/39; and in 1645 it was plundered by French, Hessian and Weimar troops.…

Geography

Ilsfeld is located in the south of the district of Heilbronn, in and around the valley of the Schozach near the point where the Gruppenbach flows into it. Parts of the town fall within two natural areas: Schwäbisch-Fränkische Waldberge (Swabian-Franconian Wooded Mountains) and Neckarbecken (Neckar Basin). The town is bordered by (clockwise from the south): Großbottwar (in the district of Ludwigsburg), Neckarwestheim, Lauffen am Neckar, Talheim, Untergruppenbach, Abstatt and Beilstein (all in the district of Heilbronn). It is the seat of the Gemeindeverwaltungsverband (local government association) of Schozach-Bottwartal, whose other members are Abstatt, Beilstein and Untergruppenbach. Ilsfeld proper, Auenstein and Schozach are sections of the town; the first also includes the hamlet of Wüstenhausen, the settlements of Landturm and Untere Mühle and the neighborhood of Engelsberghöfe, and Auenstein also includes two hamlets, Abstetterhof and Helfenberg. Ilsfeld proper also formerly included the no longer extant settlements of Beuren, Bustatt or Boestat, Gendach, Froßbach and Seetham, and Auenstein formerly included Finkenbach (now part of Helfenberg) and Kapfenhardt.

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,661
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,516
• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,402
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,266
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,036
• Zoropsid spider

  Zoropsis spinimana (Dufour, 1820) · Arachnida
  2,545
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,462
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,342

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2022-10-16
  Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
• M 4 — 2022-07-09
  2 km NNE of Grosselfingen, Germany
• M 3.6 — 2014-05-17
  2 km ESE of Pfungstadt, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-12-12
  2 km ESE of Nehren, Germany
• M 2.8 — 2008-11-25
  1 km S of Steinmauern, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2008-07-09
  1 km WSW of Dußlingen, Germany