The name "Porta Westfalica" is Latin and means "gate to Westphalia". Coming from the north, the gorge is the entry to the region of Westphalia. The name was coined by scholars of the 19th century.
History
Porta Westfalica on a postcard from 1904
The town Porta Westfalica was established in 1973 by merging fifteen villages surrounding the gorge. The centre of the modern town is the former village of Hausberge, which was first mentioned in 1096.
From 18 March 1944 until 1 April 1945 a concentration camp was established in the Barkhausen quarter.[3] From 1 February 1945 until 1 April 1945 a camp was used in the Hausberge quarter.[4] In the Lerbeck quarter also was a concentration camp in use from 1 October 1944 until 1 April 1945.[5] In the Neesen quarter was a location for the forced labour for some of the inmates.[6] All of these camps were subcamps of the Neuengamme concentration camp.
On 10 January 2015, Belgian footballer Junior Malanda died in a car accident near the town, aged 20.[7]
Geography
Porta Westfalica is situated on the right bank of the Weser (except for the Barkhausen quarter), near the Porta Westfalica gorge, where the river runs through the passage between the mountain chains of the Wiehen Hills in the west and the Weser Uplands in the east. The gorge appears like a gate to the region Westphalia, which lies to the south of it. It is overlooked by the Jakobsberg and Wittekindsberg hills.
Wittekindsburg, remains of an Iron Age "oppidum" (3rd – 1st century BC) and Saxon-Frankish fort (8th/9th century AD), in the Wiehen Hills near Barkhausen
