Page 94 - John Francis Ryan

Brief history of Wieseth

Wieseth is a ʻDorf und Landgemeindeʼ (Village and Rural Community). The village grew up at the
ford over the river Wieseth, here there was a hermitage (Veitskapelle).
The town legend: ʹA priest loses at the crossing of the river a consecrated host. This is swallowed
by a fish. When he is caught, one finds the intact host in the fishʹ.
In 1559 Wieseth became Protestant, in 1662 a new parsonage was built and in 1797 construction
of the rectory began.
From 1913-1914 construction of the church, ʻPfarrkircheʼ (Protestant parish church) was
undertaken. The location of the village was part of the House of Hohenzollern, (German royal
dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern,
Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania). The family arose in the area around
the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century and took their name from Hohenzollern
Castle. The first ancestors of the Hohenzollerns were mentioned in 1061.

Wieseth was part of the Principality of Ansbach which was under the Frankish Empire Circle from
1500, in the Treaty of Paris ((February 1806) and exchanged to the Kingdom of Bavaria. The
community is predominantly Lutheran.

The evangelical church is designed in the architectural style of the Wilhelmine historicism. The
project completed in 1914. The origins of the church date back to the 12th century. Inside the
church, the religious history of the Christian community is perceived. Parts and fittings of
predecessor churches were deliberately incorporated into the structure.