Schwalbach am Taunus, a town in the Main-Taunus-Kreis district, in Hesse, Germany, population about 14,000, is a dormitory town to Frankfurt, situated some 11 km east of Schwalbach. There is evidence of human habitation dating back to Neolithic times, and recorded history going back to 781 AD. Until the end of the Second World War, it was a farming village, but in the post-war era it expanded rapidly and became economically linked to Frankfurt. Schwalbach was granted Gemeinde (municipal) status in 1970. Geography Location The town is located between Taunus mountain range, about 10 km from the Kleiner Feldberg (825 m), and the River Main. Although the centre of the city of Frankfurt am Main is about 10 km from Schwalbach centre, the most southerly tip of Schwalbach (agricultural land) shares a one kilometre common boundary with Frankfurt (along the A66 Autobahn). The original settlement, now known as Alt-Schwalbach, was built at the confluence of the Sauerbornbach and the Waldbach. Below the confluence, the stream is known as the Schwalbach. ("Bach" = "brook" or "stream"). Before given over to human habitation, much of the area was heavily wooded - the northern tip of the municipality is still given over to woodland. History Although the written history of Schwalbach only goes back to 781 AD, archaeological discoveries made in 1961 to 1963 during the building of the town's centre indicate the existence of a Neolithic settlement (about 5000 BC). In Roman times Schwalbach was about 12 km from the limes (or frontier of the Roman Empire). The discovery of the a Viergötterstein (four deity stone) showing Hercules, Mercury, Juno and Minerva that has been dated to 180 AD suggests the existence of a villa rustica (Roman manor). Subsequent discoveries include that of a Merovingian (450 AD - 750 AD) grave suggesting that the territory was also a Frankish settlement. The Rennstraße, that linked Frankfurt to Königstein im Taunus as part of the ancient route between Frankfurt and Cologne dating from Merovignian times passed through Schwalbach; the modern-day Mutter Kraus restaurant was a seventeenth century coaching in on the route. The first time Schwalbach was mentioned documentarily was in 781 AD, when a knight named Starcfrit and his mother Mechthilt made a gift to the cloister Lorsch at the Bergstrasse. This gift was 70 joch about arable farm land, two farms and grassland in "villa Sualebach". For centuries Schwalbach was a small