Selzen

Selzen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

Location

Selzen lies between Mainz and Worms in Rhenish Hesse on the Selz. The winegrowing centre belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Rhein-Selz, whose seat is in Oppenheim.

History

In 782, Selzen had its first documentary mention under the name Salzen in the Lorsch codex. Grave finds from the New Stone Age (2000 BC), from Roman times (AD 100) and from Frankish times in the 6th and 7th century document a historic place.

From the Early Middle Ages until the 16th century, Selzen belonged to the Worms Cathedral Foundation. The Cathedral Court was the Foundation’s tithe court. In the 15th century, Electoral Palatinate acquired the chapel court and ousted the Worms Cathedral Foundation.

This action is reflected in the then court seal (and in the current coat of arms), with the blazon reading in part “the Palatine lion holds in the right paw the robbed Worms key”. In 1792, the Worms Cathedral Foundation’s ecclesiastical landlordship ended, and along with that, so did the tithes payable to Worms. Such joy was brought by this that the elm at Selzen’s southeast corner was felled and the community had a bonfire.