This community in the Odenwald lies at the three-state common point shared by Bavaria, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg. Kirchzell is the biggest municipality by land area in the Miltenberg district with a great deal of woodland, and it lies in the Geo-Naturpark Bergstraße-Odenwald. The area, whose geology is bunter-based, is drained by the Waldbach, Gabelbach and Mud into the Main. Nearby towns include Amorbach, Erbach, Michelstadt, Miltenberg, Mudau and Walldürn.
Constituent communities
Kirchzell's Ortsteile are Breitenbach, Breitenbuch, Buch, Kirchzell, Ottorfszell, Preunschen and Watterbach.
History
Kirchzell is a community with a 1,200-year history. Kirchzell owes its founding and its name to the Benedictine abbey in Amorbach. In 1168, the Amorbach Abbey and thereby also Kirchzell ended up under the lordship of the Lords of Dürn. This princely family built Wildenberg Castle upon the Preunschener Berg, a highlight in Staufer-era castle building. One hundred years later, the Lords of Dürn sold the Archbishop of Mainz their estates. In 1700, Kirchzell was granted market rights, as it was the middle point of the Kirchzeller Grund. The Electoral MainzAmt was assigned in the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss to the Princes of Leiningen, later being mediatized by Baden in 1806 and then in 1810 ceded to the Hesse-Darmstadt. In the Hesse-Bavaria Rezess it finally passed to Bavaria.
Development of the municipal area
The market community of Kirchzell merged itself in the course of municipal reform with the communities of Watterbach, Ottorfszell and Preunschen, along with their outlying centres of Breitenbuch and Buch, and with the hamlets of Dörnbach, Breitenbach, Schrahmühle and Hofmühle into the current greater community.
Politics
Community council
The council is made up of 14 council members with seats apportioned thus:
The community's arms might be described thus: Gules a church argent, the portal turned to the viewer, the steeple and the portal ensigned with a cross sable, in chief dexter the head of an abbot's staff Or, in chief sinister a wheel spoked of six of the second. The church is a cantingcharge for the community's name. The abbot's crook recalls the Amorbach Benedictine abbey's hegemony and landlordship in the community, and the Wheel of Mainz recalls Electoral Mainz’s rule after that. The arms have been borne since 1964.
Forest museum at the Watterbacher Haus in the outlying centre of Preunschen: The Watterbacher Haus is a so-called Wohnstallhaus, one designed to house both a farmer and his livestock, and is said to be one of the oldest farmhouses in the Odenwald. The Firstständerhaus was built in 1475, and it originally stood in Watterbach. In 1982 it was moved to Preunschen. In the forest museum, the development of the Odenwald’s forest history, the forest’s use in earlier times, basketweaving and
