Faid

Faid 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 Cochem, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies at the edge of the Eifel near the river Moselle, 6 km west of the district seat of Cochem. Faid’s municipal area comprises 823 ha, of which 363 ha is wooded and another 261 ha is used for agriculture. The nearby mountain, the “Galgenkopf” (“Gallows Head”), has an elevation of 413 m above sea level.HistoryAbout Faid’s beginnings, nothing can be said with any certainty. According to a legend, the village’s name comes from Fett – German for “fat” – from the story that holds that the village once had to supply the lordly kitchen with fat. It seems likelier, though, that the name comes from the Latin word feudum, which means “fief” (and which also yields the English word “feudal”). Another scholarly opinion, however, holds that the name is indeed of Latin origin, but that it rather comes from fagus, the word for “beech”.