Alsfeld inhabited!Oldest traces of settlement in Alsfeld

The exact circumstances of the founding of the settlement “Adelesfeld” have not been completely clarified to this day. It is likely related to the Merovingian-Frankish land grab in the 8th/9th century, the expansion of the road system at that time (Alsfeld is located on the trade route through the “Kurze Hessen” which emerged during this period), and Christianization starting from a Carolingian manor at the Grabbrunnen.

The finds from Steinborngasse pictured here are even older (around the year 700) and provide evidence of a settlement already established in Merovingian times. They support an explanatory approach by O. Spaar, which states that in the middle of the 7th century, still in pagan-Merovingian times, individual farmsteads or early village cells emerged at the three important springs: Grabbrunnen (next to “the castle”), Steinbornbrunnen, and the spring at the level of today’s city library in Schnepfenhain, which gradually grew larger and merged. This theory is supported by the fact that as late as 1468, these three former village plots were listed as separate tax districts of the city. (MNic)