| Type: | Stadt |
| Eltville | |
| German Name: | Eltville am Rhein |
| Image Coa: | Wappen Eltville am Rhein.png |
| Coordinates: | 50.0256°N 8.1192°W |
| Image Plan: | Eltville am Rhein in RÜD.svg |
| State: | Hesse |
| Region: | Darmstadt |
| District: | Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis |
| Elevation: | 95 |
| Area: | 46.77 |
| Postal Code: | 65343–65347 |
| Area Code: | 06123, 06723 (Hattenheim) |
| Licence: | RÜD |
| Gemeindeschlüssel: | 06 4 39 003 |
| Divisions: | 5 districts |
| Website: | www.eltville.de |
| Mayor: | Patrick Kunkel[1] |
| Leader Term: | 2024 - 30 |
| Party: | CDU |
Eltville am Rhein (from Alta Villa, Latin for "high estate, high town", corrupted to Eldeville, Elfeld and later Eltville, pronounced as /de/) is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. It lies on the German Timber-Frame Road ().
Eltville is the largest town in the Rheingau. It bears the nicknames Weinstadt, Sektstadt, Rosenstadt and since 2006 also Gutenbergstadt. Some of Germany's most famous vineyards (Steinberg, Rauenthaler Baiken, Erbacher Marcobrunn) are found within Eltville's municipal limits.
Eltville, which belongs culturally to the Rheingau region, lies on the River Rhine, 12 km west-southwest of Wiesbaden.
Eltville borders in the north on the municipalities of Schlangenbad and Kiedrich, in the east on the district-free city of Wiesbaden and the municipality of Walluf, in the south – separated by the Rhine – on the municipalities of Budenheim und Heidesheim and the town of Ingelheim (all three in Mainz-Bingen in Rhineland-Palatinate) and in the west on the town of Oestrich-Winkel.
Eltville am Rhein as a municipality consists of five Stadtteile:
All of them have the status as an Ortsbezirk.
The earliest traces of humans settling here go back to the New Stone Age. There has been continuous habitation since the late 4th century. Eltville had its first documentary mention in Vita Bardonis (Bardo's life) from 1058, a biography of Archbishop Bardo of Mainz. In 1329, the castle and the town wall around Eltville were built. On 23 August 1332, Emperor Louis the Bavarian granted Eltville town rights. With the granting of town rights, Eltville ended up being a pawn in the then ongoing dispute between the Emperor and the Pope. Archbishop Baldwin, one of Emperor Louis's followers and administrator of the Mainz monastery, was the one who asked for Eltville to be raised to town. From 1347 to 1480, Eltville was the residence of the Archbishops of Mainz. In 1349, Günther of Schwarzburg was defeated in his bid for the German throne at the Siege of Eltville. From Dietrich Schenk von Erbach, Archbishop of Mainz (1434–1459), the outlying centre of Erbach presumably got its name.
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
| Parties and voter communities | % 2006 | Seats 2006 | % 2001 | Seats 2001 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union | 44.0 | 16 | 45.5 | 17 | |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party | 30.1 | 11 | 29.2 | 11 | |
| GREENS | Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | 9.8 | 4 | 10.7 | 4 | |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party | 5.0 | 2 | 5.2 | 2 | |
| BL | Bürgerliste | 7.0 | 3 | 5.4 | 2 | |
| REP | The Republicans | 4.1 | 1 | – | – | |
| WOK | Wählergemeinschaft Opitz-Kaldenberg | – | – | 4.0 | 1 | |
| Total | 100.0 | 37 | 100.0 | 37 | ||
| Voter turnout in % | 54.4 | 51.3 | ||||
The town of Eltville am Rhein maintains partnerships with these places:
Montrichard, Loir-et-Cher, France Arzens, Aude, France
Passignano sul Trasimeno, Perugia, Umbria, ItalyEltville is developed for tourists, and well known for its wine and sekt production, which can be sampled at many wineries and Straußwirtschaften (seasonal wine shops). Eltville is the headquarters of MM-Sektkellerei (which today belongs to Rotkäppchen-Sekt), Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach (Hessian State Wine Estates of Eberbach Monastery), and Sektmanufaktur Schloss Vaux, as well as the biggest industrial employer in the Rheingau, Jean Müller GmbH Elektrotechnische Fabrik. Eltville is one of Germany's ten "Rosenstädte" (rose towns).
Eltville lies on Bundesstraße 42, which towards the east is built like an Autobahn and near Walluf seamlessly joins the A 66. Eltville station also lies on the East Rhine Railway, which connects Frankfurt and Wiesbaden to Koblenz and Cologne and belongs to the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund. On the Rhine's bank are several landing stages for, among others, the Köln-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt, a well known Rhine passenger ship operator.