Hirschhorn (Neckar) is a small town in the Bergstraße district of Hesse, Germany, and is known as "The Pearl of the Neckar valley”. Hirschhorn is a climatic health resort situated in the Geo-Naturpark Bergstraße-Odenwald. Geography Location Hirschhorn is situated at a horseshoe bend of the River Neckar, roughly 19 km east of Heidelberg. The Neckar has dug its way through the wooded hills of the Odenwald here. Hirschhorn stretches along the right bank of the Neckar, i.e. north of the river. Ersheim, Hirschhorn's oldest part, has the distinction, however, of being the only bit of Hesse south of the Neckar. In Hirschhorn, two northern tributaries, the Ulfenbach and the Finkenbach, join to become the Laxbach before flowing into the Neckar. Neighbouring communities In the north, Hirschhorn borders on the villages of Heddesbach (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg) and Brombach (part of Eberbach), and on the parish of Rothenberg (Odenwaldkreis). The town of Eberbach (east of Hirschhorn) is also in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis and therefore in Baden-Württemberg. South of Hirschhorn there is the parish of Schoenbrunn (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis); the town of Neckarsteinach is towards the south-west, and to the west of Hirschhorn there is the town of Schoenau (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis), with the forest district of Michelbuch in between, which has its own peculiar status and does not belong to any village or town. Constituent communities Apart from the town itself, the following villages belong to Hirschhorn: Langenthal (in the Ulfenbach valley) Unter-Hainbrunn (in the Finkenbach valley) Hessisch-Igelsbach (Badisch-Igelsbach is part of Eberbach) History Ersheim The first document in which the settlement of Ersheim is mentioned is the Lorsch codex in an endowment dated 773 (Lorsch Documents, no. 2624). This settlement, which in 1023 under the name of Erasam belonged to the property of a monastery affiliated to Lorsch, St Michael's on Heiligenberg near Heidelberg, was one of the oldest in the Neckar valley. Whereas almost the whole of the surrounding area came into the possession of the diocese of Worms in the 11th century, Ersheim together with the nearby village of Ramsau downriver on the right bank remained an exclave of Lorsch. From here several villages were founded in forest clearings from the 12th century onward, among them Weidenau, Unter-Hainbrunn, Igelsbach and Krautlach, but they were largely abandoned again afterwards. Foundation of the town by the Lords of Hirschhorn The actual town of Hirschhorn southwest of Ersheim on the right bank of the Neckar derives its name