Sankt Aldegund


Sankt Aldegund 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. Sankt Aldegund is a winegrowing and holidaymaking centre.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies on the river Moselle roughly halfway between Trier and Koblenz.

History

In 1097, Sankt Aldegund had its first documentary mention as Sanctam Aldegundam. It is known that the place was settled as far back as Roman times from the foundations of a Roman villa rustica south of the village, and also from a woman's grave from Constantine the Great’s time unearthed in 1953 during vineyard work. The grave also yielded up valuable grave goods made of glass and ceramic, among them a blue glass bowl shaped like a little ship, whose fine execution had never before been seen in a find north of the Alps.
The municipality’s namesake is the Merovingian prince’s daughter and abbess Aldegonde, who in the 7th century lived and worked in Maubeuge, and who was canonized shortly after dying of breast cancer.
The old village school, mentioned in 1523, was used as a one-room school until 1781.
Beginning in 1794, Sankt Aldegund 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 of 18 July 1970, with effect from 7 November 1970, the municipality was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Mayor

Sankt Aldegund's mayor is Helmut Gietz.

Coat of arms

The municipality's arms might be described thus: Or in base an inescutcheon argent charged with a cross gules, behind which standing Saint Aldegonde vested sable, in her dexter hand an abbess's staff, in her sinister hand a book of the third garnished of the first.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
First mentioned in 1144 was the Romanesque “Old Church”, standing over the village, for centuries a pilgrimage centre for the local farmers to the “livestock saint”, Bartholomew the Apostle, who was also the church's patron. Among the valuable appointments are a Renaissance altar from Hans Ruprecht Hoffmann's workshop, a “Christ at Rest” from 1522, a gift from Abbot Nikolaus of Sankt Aldegund, who worked at a monastery in Lorraine, a wrought-iron pulpit and a Late Gothic Madonna. The apse and the church's interior are decorated with Late Gothic paintings. Buried in the surrounding churchyard is the art collector Peter Ludwig, who died in 1996. The “New Parish Church” in Gothic Revival style was completed in 1872 and is decorated with interesting painted artwork from 1912, restored in 2005.

Sundry

Near Sankt Aldegund stands a transmission facility of the Amt für Geoinformationswesen der Bundeswehr.