Kaisersesch

Kaisersesch is a town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, to which it also belongs.GeographyLocationThe town lies in the eastern Eifel halfway between the rivers Elz and Endert in the headwaters of the Pommerbach, roughly 14 km north of Cochem and 16 km southwest of Mayen. Its elevation is 410 m above sea level.HistoryThe place where Kaisersesch now stands was once a crossroads in prehistoric and Roman times. A Roman presence is known to have existed here from a gravesite and a water supply line that have been unearthed.In the Early Middle Ages, Asche, as it was once known, was among the Lotharingian county palatine’s holdings. Sometime between 1051 and 1056, Esch, as it came to be known, had its first documentary mention in a donation document dealing with the Ezzonid heiress Richeza’s great donation to the Brauweiler Monastery near Cologne. Beginning in 1294, Esch was a court centre in the Electorate of Trier. In 1320, it was heavily fortified, and the following year, on Archbishop Balduin’s instigation, it was granted town rights by King Louis the Bavarian. Thereafter, the town was known as Kaisersesch (“Emperor’s Esch”), although locals sometimes still call it simply Esch even today.