Oestrich, Iserlohn — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Oestrich?

The Burgberg is the oldest ground. A rampart on it dates at least to post-Carolingian times, and a heritage researcher's suggestion that it is older or was a cult site cannot be proved from archaeology or written sources. Late antique gold came from its foot.

A neck ring and arm rings of the 4th century were found below the rock called Pater und Nonne. Seven limes stand at a cemetery gate. Legend has survivors of the plague of 1636 planting them in thanks at the entrance to the Am Lindenplatz burial ground.

What is the history of Oestrich?

People were in this country long before the name. Numerous Stone Age find spots at Grürmannsheide, on the Burgberg and in the caves of the Grüner Tal and Lennetal, among them the now destroyed Martinshöhle, point to settlement more than forty thousand years ago. The first record is a court roll.

Oestrich appears as Cometia Osteric, the free court of Oestrich, in the Große Vogteirolle of the Stift Essen kept by the count of Isenberg-Altena, a document dated to between 1220 and 1250. Its name says where it is. Oestrich can be read as the settlement lying to the east.

Position helped and hurt it. The little farming village sat near the crossing of two imperial roads and prospered on that, but was repeatedly thrown back by war and disease. Plague nearly ended it in 1636.

Only seven people in Oestrich survived the epidemic that year during the Thirty Years War, and the seven limes at the Lindenplatz cemetery gate are said to be their thanks.

Where is Oestrich?

Oestrich lies in the northwest of the Sauerland within Iserlohn in the Märkischer Kreis, bounded north by the A46 and Grürmannsheide, west by the Flemebach at Letmathe, east by Dröschede and south by Untergrüne.