stood in the centre of a roundabout. Westerland has three churches: St. Niels, Protestant church, built in 1635-37. , Protestant church, consecrated in 1908. , Roman Catholic church, built in 1997-99 to replace the previous structure dating from 1957. Prior to that, the Herz-Jesu-Kapelle (built in 1896) had stood in that location. Nearby is the , a small cemetery for victims of shipwrecks washed ashore between 1855 and 1905. Sylter Welle was opened in 1993 as a spa and wellness centre, with indoor pool and sauna. is a small aquarium in the south of Westerland. Government On 1 January 2009, Westerland became part of the new municipality Gemeinde Sylt created by the merger of the town with the former municipalities Rantum and Sylt-Ost. The debate on this move had started in 2003 when a similar merger happened on Fehmarn. However, local rivalries and desire for independence prevented progress for a time. It took the foundation of a citizens' movement Bürger für Sylt als Einheit to advance the plan. In separate referendums in 2008, Westerland (by a large majority) and Sylt-Ost (narrowly) agreed to the merger in May 2008. Rantum followed, but List, Kampen, Wenningstedt-Braderup and Hörnum remained aloof. In September 2008 the merger contract was signed. Although Westerland used to have the status of Stadt (city, awarded in 1905), the new municipality so far refrained from applying for this status. One reason is that the Ortsteile do not want to advertise their tourism services as simple suburbs (Stadtteile). As a result of this change, the coat of arms of Westerland was cancelled. Westerland is now an Ortsteil of Gemeinde Sylt. Since 1 May 2015, the mayor of Gemeinde Sylt has been Nikolas Häckel. Gemeinde Sylt shares its administration in a with the Amt Landschaft Sylt, located in the townhall of Westerland - the former Kurhaus, built in 1897. Infrastructure Transport Sylt, and thereby also Westerland, cannot be reached by road from the mainland. Instead, there is a shuttle train that carries cars, the Sylt-Shuttle, that runs between Niebüll and Westerland. The railway line, called the Marsh Railway (Marschbahn), runs across the 11.3 km-long Hindenburgdamm, a causeway across the Wadden Sea joining Sylt to the mainland. Passenger trains, both local and long-distance, also serve Westerland, reaching it across the causeway. Westerland can also be reached by air through Sylt Airport, and by car ferry from the nearby Danish island of Rømø.