Moselkern
Encyclopedia
Moselkern is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell
district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Treis-Karden
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
.
, where this river empties into the river Moselle.
in the west, the Münstermaifeld
Stadtteil of Lasserg and Wierschem
in the north and Burgen
and Hatzenport
in the northeast.
Foundation in Karden
. In 1097, Kerne was named as the only village in the district that in the Middle Ages
was subject to the rural chapter of Ochtendung. In 1280, Sir Hermann von Löf, a knight, forwent one third of the tithes gathered from winemaking and cereal yields in Moselkern in favour of the Münstermaifeld Foundation. In 1337, Johann von Eltz, Burgrave
at Baldeneltz, held a fief in Moselkern from the Electorate of Trier. In 1424, Johann von Eltz was enfeoffed by the Electorate of Trier with his father Richard’s fief, which comprised, among other things, vineyard
s in Moselkern. In 1442, he was enfeoffed with benefits from winemaking, an estate and taxes out of his wife Agnes von Kobern’s holdings by the Electorate of Trier. By 1794, the estate was still held by the Counts of Eltz
, albeit jointly with the Counts of Leyen. A priest in Kerne was mentioned in Rudolf von Polch’s will
. In the Taxa generalia, which came into being about 1330, Moselkern was listed as “capella sive plebania” (“chapel
or presbytery
”) with a priest who celebrated Early Mass
. In the 16th century it is likely that the church was granted full parochial rights to the veneration of Saint Valerius
. It is from this time, too, that the figure of the holy bishop Valerius on the side altar to the right comes. Today’s church building was built to plans by Electoral-Trier master builder Wirth in 1789.
Trier’s lordship ended only a few years later with the occupation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank by French Revolutionary
troops in 1794. In 1814 Moselkern was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia
at the Congress of Vienna
. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Sable a pall wavy argent between, in chief a lion rampant erased below the shoulders Or armed and langued gules, in dexter the Moselkern Merovingian gravestone of the third and in sinister a mitre of the same.
The wavy pall (the Y-shaped ordinary
) refers to the municipality’s location at the mouth of the Elzbach
, where it flows into the Moselle. The gravestone charge
is an image of one unearthed about 1800 in Moselkern. It is of Merovingian
origin and dates from the 7th century. It is one of the Western World’s
earliest monumental Christian
images. The mitre
recalls the church’s patron saint, Valerius
. His image can be found on the seals used by the court and Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”) from 1562 and 1765.
The arms were designed by A. Friderichs of Zell
and have been borne since 12 February 1982.
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell
Cochem-Zell
Cochem-Zell is a district in the north-west of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Mayen-Koblenz, Rhein-Hunsrück, Bernkastel-Wittlich, and Vulkaneifel.- History :...
district
Districts of Germany
The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....
in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden (Verbandsgemeinde)
Treis-Karden is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Cochem-Zell, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Treis-Karden....
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde to which it also belongs...
.
Location
The municipality lies at the mouth of the ElzbachElzbach
The Elzbach is a small river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a left tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Eifel, near Kelberg. The Elz flows through Monreal and along the castle Burg Eltz. It flows into the Moselle in Moselkern, in the Verbandsgemeinde of Treis-Karden....
, where this river empties into the river Moselle.
Neighbouring municipalities
Moselkern’s neighbours are MüdenMüden (Mosel)
Müden an der Mosel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – and a tourism resort in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
in the west, the Münstermaifeld
Münstermaifeld
Münstermaifeld is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Maifeld. It is situated south-east of Mayen, a few km from the Moselle River and the castle Eltz. The first residents of the region were Celts...
Stadtteil of Lasserg and Wierschem
Wierschem
Wierschem is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
in the north and Burgen
Burgen, Mayen-Koblenz
Burgen is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
and Hatzenport
Hatzenport
Hatzenport is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
in the northeast.
History
A villa Kerne was listed about 1100 in the directory of holdings at Saint Castor’sCastor of Karden
Saint Castor of Karden was a priest and hermit of the 4th century who is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. Castor was a pupil of Maximinus of Trier around 345 AD, and was ordained as a priest by Maximinus. Like his teacher, Castor may have come from the region of Aquitaine...
Foundation in Karden
Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde to which it also belongs...
. In 1097, Kerne was named as the only village in the district that in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
was subject to the rural chapter of Ochtendung. In 1280, Sir Hermann von Löf, a knight, forwent one third of the tithes gathered from winemaking and cereal yields in Moselkern in favour of the Münstermaifeld Foundation. In 1337, Johann von Eltz, Burgrave
Burgrave
A burgrave is literally the count of a castle or fortified town. The English form is derived through the French from the German Burggraf and Dutch burg- or burch-graeve .* The title is originally equivalent to that of castellan or châtelain, meaning keeper of a castle and/or fortified town...
at Baldeneltz, held a fief in Moselkern from the Electorate of Trier. In 1424, Johann von Eltz was enfeoffed by the Electorate of Trier with his father Richard’s fief, which comprised, among other things, vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s in Moselkern. In 1442, he was enfeoffed with benefits from winemaking, an estate and taxes out of his wife Agnes von Kobern’s holdings by the Electorate of Trier. By 1794, the estate was still held by the Counts of Eltz
Eltz
The House of Eltz is a noted German noble family of the Uradel. The Rhenish dynasty has had close ties to the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia since 1736.-History:...
, albeit jointly with the Counts of Leyen. A priest in Kerne was mentioned in Rudolf von Polch’s will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. In the Taxa generalia, which came into being about 1330, Moselkern was listed as “capella sive plebania” (“chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
or presbytery
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...
”) with a priest who celebrated Early Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
. In the 16th century it is likely that the church was granted full parochial rights to the veneration of Saint Valerius
Valerius of Trèves
Saint Valerius was a semi-legendary bishop of Trier. His feast day is 29 January.-Legend:According to an ancient legend, he was a follower of Saint Eucharius, the first bishop of Trier...
. It is from this time, too, that the figure of the holy bishop Valerius on the side altar to the right comes. Today’s church building was built to plans by Electoral-Trier master builder Wirth in 1789.
Trier’s lordship ended only a few years later with the occupation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank by French Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
troops in 1794. In 1814 Moselkern was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
at the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority votePlurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
Mayor
Moselkern’s mayor is Wolfgang Kratz, and his deputies are Josef Weckbecker and Ursula Weins.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In schwarz eine silberne wellenförmige Deichsel, oben ein rotbewehrter und -gezungter goldener Löwenkopf, vorne ein goldener Grabstein, hinten eine goldene Mitra.The municipality’s arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
language be described thus: Sable a pall wavy argent between, in chief a lion rampant erased below the shoulders Or armed and langued gules, in dexter the Moselkern Merovingian gravestone of the third and in sinister a mitre of the same.
The wavy pall (the Y-shaped ordinary
Ordinary (heraldry)
In heraldry, an ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield. There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries, which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, though most have been in use...
) refers to the municipality’s location at the mouth of the Elzbach
Elzbach
The Elzbach is a small river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a left tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Eifel, near Kelberg. The Elz flows through Monreal and along the castle Burg Eltz. It flows into the Moselle in Moselkern, in the Verbandsgemeinde of Treis-Karden....
, where it flows into the Moselle. The gravestone charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
is an image of one unearthed about 1800 in Moselkern. It is of Merovingian
Merovingian dynasty
The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that came to rule the Franks in a region largely corresponding to ancient Gaul from the middle of the 5th century. Their politics involved frequent civil warfare among branches of the family...
origin and dates from the 7th century. It is one of the Western World’s
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
earliest monumental Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
images. The mitre
Mitre
The mitre , also spelled miter, is a type of headwear now known as the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishops and certain abbots in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in the Anglican Communion, some Lutheran churches, and also bishops and certain other clergy in the Eastern Orthodox...
recalls the church’s patron saint, Valerius
Valerius of Trèves
Saint Valerius was a semi-legendary bishop of Trier. His feast day is 29 January.-Legend:According to an ancient legend, he was a follower of Saint Eucharius, the first bishop of Trier...
. His image can be found on the seals used by the court and Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”) from 1562 and 1765.
The arms were designed by A. Friderichs of Zell
Zell (Mosel)
Zell is a town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Zell has roughly 4,300 inhabitants and is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.-Location:...
and have been borne since 12 February 1982.
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
- Saint Valerius’sValerius of TrèvesSaint Valerius was a semi-legendary bishop of Trier. His feast day is 29 January.-Legend:According to an ancient legend, he was a follower of Saint Eucharius, the first bishop of Trier...
Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Valerius), Oberstraße 57 – aisleless churchAisleless churchAn Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...
, 1788-1790, RomanesqueRomanesque architectureRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
west tower, gate portal marked 1781; above the gate portal a pietàPietàThe Pietà is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ...
, marked 1681; Merovingian gravestone (cast); missionary cross, 18th century; attendant figures of the old high altar, 18th century; grave cross, 1755; basaltBasaltBasalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
cross, 1766; tomb slab, 1791; Coronation of the VirginCoronation of the VirginThe Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove,...
, early 18th century; tomb with vase; warriors’ memorial, Baroque Revival pylon with relief - Am Bahnhof – railway station; one-floor reception hall, timber-frameTimber framingTimber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
goods shed, two-floor commercial wing with dwelling, Swiss chalet styleSwiss chalet styleSwiss chalet style is an architectural style inspired by the chalets of Switzerland. The style originated in Germany in the early 19th century and was popular in parts of Europe and North America, notably in the architecture of Norway, the country house architecture of Sweden, Cincinnati, Ohio,...
, 1909; whole complex with tracks - Bergweg 1 – quarrystone building, about 1900/1910
- Elztalstraße – Alte Lohmühle (“Old Dyeing Mill”); 19th century; Late HistoricistHistoricism (art)Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans. After neo-classicism, which could itself be considered a historicist movement, the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by a return to a more ancient classicism, in particular in...
quarrystone villa, late 19th century; two quarrystone mill buildings; factory building; whole complex with garden - Fährstraße 2 – Hotel “Burg Eltz”; three-floor quarrystone building, marked 1902
- Kirchstraße 2 – building with half-hipped roof, marked 1767
- Kirchstraße 5 – timber-frame house, partly solid, marked 1629
- Kirchstraße/corner of Moselstraße – garden with corner pavilions
- Moselstraße – two-arch bridge, marked 1892
- Moselstraße 5 – former Halfenhaus (house for a tenant who owed the landlord half his earnings); timber-frame building, partly solid, half-hipped roof, marked 1738
- Moselstraße 10 – niche figure, 19th or 20th century
- Moselstraße 13 – three-floor ClassicistClassicismClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
timber-frame house, plastered, half-hipped roof, addition with cast-ironCast ironCast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
loggiaLoggiaLoggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
, about 1900 - Moselstraße 15 – wayside cross, 19th century
- Moselstraße 31 – Late Historicist quarrystone villa, partly timber-frame, Moselle style, about 1900
- Moselstraße 33 – Late Historicist quarrystone villa, partly timber-frame, with several wings, about 1900; whole complex with garden
- Graveyard, Oberstraße (monumental zone) – chapelChapelA chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
: building with central plan with ridge turret, 1910, architects Franz Schenk and K. Frank, SaarbrückenSaarbrückenSaarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
; Knorpelstil cartouche marked 1707; graveyard cross with place for clergy burials; in the surrounding wall (inside) 19 grave crosses from the 16th to 18th centuries, outside, niches with, among other things, a Baroque Revival pietà, 20th century; portal marked 1916 - Oberstraße 7 – winemaker’s villa; quarrystone building with mansard roofMansard roofA mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
; whole complex of buildings with commercial building - Oberstraße 14 – quarrystone building, partly timber-frame, earlier half of the 16th century
- Oberstraße 21 – former Gräflich von Eltzsches Oberrentamt (High Office of Eltz Comital Revenue”); broad plastered building, marked 1709; Historicist staircase, 19th century; whole complex with garden
- Oberstraße 22 – slate quarrystone winemaker’s house, 19th century
- Oberstraße 33 – door with skylight, marked 1821
- Oberstraße 43 – door lintel, marked 1722
- Oberstraße 47 – town hall; three-floor timber-frame house, partly solid, marked 1535; back possibly from the latter half of the 16th century
- Oberstraße 60 – timber-frame house, plastered, early 19th century
- Oberstraße 62 – Late Historicist-RomanticistRomanticismRomanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
quarrystone house, marked 1897; whole complex with garden - Oberstraße/corner of Fährstraße – timber-frame barn, partly solid, about 1800
- Seilerstraße 1 – timber-frame house, partly solid, marked 1717
- On Kreisstraße (District Road) 33 going towards MünstermaifeldMünstermaifeldMünstermaifeld is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Maifeld. It is situated south-east of Mayen, a few km from the Moselle River and the castle Eltz. The first residents of the region were Celts...
– quarrystone chapel, 1876/1880; three quarrystone Stations of the Cross, Bildstock or stele types with reliefs - Heiligenhäuschen (a small, shrinelike structure consecrated to a saint or saints) with cross; oak and basalt, marked 1689 and 1733
- Vineyard chapel, Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architectureThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
quarrystone building with central plan, 1891
Other buildings
- Right near Moselkern, although within WierschemWierschemWierschem is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
’s municipal limits, is Burg EltzBurg EltzBurg Eltz is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier, Germany. It is still owned by a branch of the same family that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. The Rübenach and Rodendorf families' homes in the castle are open to the...
, a still-inhabited mediaevalMiddle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
castleCastleA castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
. - Moselkern’s town hall – Rathaus – from 1535 is the oldest town hall on the Moselle that is actually used as such, although admittedly, since it was built, it has at times been given over to other purposes. Over the almost five hundred years through which it has stood, it has also been a schoolSchoolA school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
. In 1909, a small conventConventA convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
with a daycare centre was set up in the building and that stayed until 1969. Since 2002, the building has once again been used as a town hall. One curiosity at this building is the metal ring mortised into the ground floor, to which, until the French RevolutionFrench RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, wrongdoers were fastened and exposed to public ridicule. - A replica of the so-called Merovingian Cross from about 700, unearthed in Moselkern in 1915, stands on the church square at Saint Valerius’s. It is said to be the oldest representation of a crucified ChristCrucifixion of JesusThe crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
in monumental art north of the AlpsAlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
. The original is found at the Rhenish State Museum (Rheinisches LandesmuseumRheinisches Landesmuseum BonnThe Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, or LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, is a museum in Bonn, Germany, run by the Rhineland Landscape Association. It is one of the oldest museums in the country. In 2003 it completed an extensive renovation...
) in BonnBonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Paul Gibbert (1898–1967), German politician (Centre PartyCentre Party (Germany)The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
, CDU) - Ramona Sturm (1989), wine queen of Moselle 2010/2011, german wine princess 2011/2012