Alf, Rhineland-Palatinate
| Alf | ||
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 Alf
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Location of Alf within Cochem-Zell district
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| Coordinates: 50°3′22.94″N 7°7′28.85″E / 50.0563722°N 7.1246806°ECoordinates: 50°3′22.94″N 7°7′28.85″E / 50.0563722°N 7.1246806°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| District | Cochem-Zell | |
| Municipal assoc. | Zell (Mosel) | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Peter Mittler | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 6.33 km2 (2.44 sq mi) | |
| Population (2015-12-31) | ||
| • Total | 840 | |
| • Density | 130/km2 (340/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 56859 | |
| Dialling codes | 06542 | |
| Vehicle registration | COC | |
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Alf 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 Zell, whose seat is in the municipality of Zell an der Mosel.
At Alf, the Alf, or Alfbach, empties into the Moselle. The municipality lies on the Moselle’s left bank. The municipal area measures 6.33 km², of which 0.67 km² is vineyards and 3.79 km² is wooded.
Two neighbours are Bullay and Pünderich, both on the right bank.
Alf’s Ortsteile are the main centre, also called Alf, and the outlying centres of Höllenthal and Alf-Fabrik. The latter is historically an industrial centre, as its name suggests (Fabrik means “factory” in German). Both these centres lie on the river Alf, inland from the Moselle.
In pre-Roman times, the place was inhabited by Celts. In 50 BC, Alf had its first documentary mention under the Latin name Albis. The modern name is derived from this. At this time, it was a Roman settlement.
In the Middle Ages, Alf belonged to the lordship whose seat was at the nearby Castle Arras, and which was in turn an Electoral-Trier fief. According to legend, a charcoal maker named Arras was enfeoffed with the holding by the Archbishop of Trier as thanks for his, and his twelve brave sons’, deed of having beaten back a great horde of Hungarians in the Alfbach valley. What is known to history, though, is that Count Palatine Herrmann, on the spot that had quite possibly been fortified as far back as Celtic times, had the castle built in 938 as a defensive facility against Hungarian incursions. In the many centuries that followed, the castle fell into disrepair, but it was rebuilt between 1907 and 1910. Since then, the castle has been inhabited, but is nonetheless open to visitors, affording them views of the Alfbach valley, the Moselle, the Kondelwald and the Hunsrück.
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Wikipedia