History
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 (forest) and the Hunsrück.
Beginning in 1794, Alf lay under French rule. In 1815 it 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. Under the Verwaltungsvereinfachungsgesetz (“Administration Simplification Law”) of 18 July 1970, with effect from 7 November 1970, the municipality was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell.
Read more about this topic: Alf, Rhineland-Palatinate
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“The custard is setting; meanwhile
I not only have my own history to worry about
But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)