Moritzberg (Hildesheim)
Strategically, the former place of worship and the chapel were in a very advantageous position: the ancient Hellweg trade route ran past the foot of the hill, which offered a clear view of the Innerste valley where the town of Hildesheim was developing at a ford.
One of Gunthar's successors, Bishop Godehard of Hildesheim (1022–38), founded a monastery beside the chapel on the Zierenberg about 1025 and had a church built there which was dedicated to Saint Maurice and consecrated in 1028.
A village bearing the same name developed around the monastery and at the foot of the hill beside the trade route in the Early Middle Ages.
The provost of Saint Maurice's monastery allowed Flemish settlers to found a new town between Moritzberg and Hildesheim in 1196.
The inhabitants of Hildesheim, who did not want to be governed by the bishop any longer, considered neighbouring Dammstadt to be a danger to the economic growth of their own town.
As many inhabitants of Dammstadt sought refuge in Moritzberg, that village was attacked as well and suffered considerable damage.
In 1347, the townsfolk of Hildesheim attacked and looted Moritzberg, drove the inhabitants out of the village and destroyed it.
When Protestantism was introduced into Hildesheim and its surrounding area in 1542, the inhabitants of Moritzberg and several other villages, e.g. Sorsum, refused to convert.
After Christian IV of Denmark had intervened in the fighting, Moritzberg was looted by Danish soldiers in 1626 and Saint Maurice's Church was heavily damaged.
After the Thirty Years' War, Moritzberg was granted market rights by Maximilian Henry of Bavaria in 1652.
[3] He wanted to promote the economic recovery of the Roman Catholic village which had suffered from the ravages of war, but there has never been a dedicated market place in Moritzberg.
When the first factories were founded in Hildesheim in the 19th century, many workers preferred to live in Moritzberg because rents were lower there.
Several authorities of Hildesheim claimed a complete incorporation of the market town of Moritzberg with all its fields and meadows into the city.
The inhabitants of Moritzberg, most of whom were still Roman Catholics, opposed the incorporation as they did not want to live in a city where Protestants had the absolute majority.
They asked Ludwig Windhorst, a Roman Catholic minister of the government in Berlin and president of the Centre Party, for help.
After the war, new residential areas were built, especially in the west and south of the old town centre of Moritzberg.
Moritzberg is a much-liked quarter with several historic sights, steep streets, some old, picturesque lanes, a well-kept park around Lake Koenigsteich which was laid out in 1930[5] with a pavilion dating from May 2021 and a forest from where there is a beautiful view of Hildesheim.
