The community lies in the Spessart hill range, a Mittelgebirge. Most of the houses are located in the valley of the Elsava, but the municipal territory extends into the wooded hills, especially to the east.
Subdivision
The community was formed out of the former municipalities of Hessenthal and Mespelbrunn. Today, it has three Ortsteile on two Gemarkungen, Hessenthal and Mespelbrunn.
The foundation of the villages Hessenthal and Neudorf was the result of settlement activities in the Spessart by the Archbishops of Mainz and the Counts of Rieneck, respectively. Between the two villages ran the territorial border between these lords. The pilgrimage to Hessenthal goes back at least to 1293. It was established by Mainz as a response to the Rienecks' foundation of Kloster Himmelthal. In the Middle Ages, the Elsava valley and Hessenthal were located on the juncture of two important long distance trade routes, the Via Publica through the Spessart to the Main crossing at Lengfurt and the early-medieval Salzweg from Worms. The west-east route from Aschaffenburg to Würzburg gained in importance in the 18th century, resulting in the establishment by Mainz of a fortified road through the Spessart and an overland mail station at Hessenthal around 1800. It prospered until a new route from Lohr to Aschaffenburg via Hain was established. In 1854, the Ludwig Western Railway was built, shifting transit traffic to the railway. The inn that served as mail station was visited in 1826 by Wilhelm Hauff and is one of several possible inspirations for the inn in his novella Das Wirtshaus im Spessart, later to become a successful film.
Government
Community council
The council is made up of 14 council members, not counting the mayor.
The community’s arms might be described thus: Gules the castle portal of Mespelbrunn argent surmounted above the lintel by an inescutcheon azure a bend of the second surmounted by three annulets of the third, from base issuant into the gateway arch a hazel twig growing palewise with two leaves and one nut of the second. The arms were conferred in 1986 and show the castle entrance of the family Echter with their family coat of arms in the inescutcheon. The hazel twig stands for Hessenthal, whose name was once Haseltal. The tinctures gules and argent are taken from the arms borne by the Electorate of Mainz.
Attractions
''Schloss Mespelbrunn''
Mespelbrunn earns its livelihood above all from tourism, and is known for Mespelbrunn Castle, expanded beginning in 1551 by the Echter family. In Mespelbrunn and at the moated castle, several scenes of the 1950s German classic film The Spessart Inn were shot.
The chapel, which was where the pietà was originally kept, is located around 1 kilometer northwest of the Wallfahrtskirche close to an intersection of two ancient roads: the Salzweg from Worms and the Via Publica from Brussels to Prague. The current structure dates from 1670 and has been largely unchanged since then.
