Briedel 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. Briedel is an old winegrowing centre on the Middle Moselle. Geography Location The municipality lies on the river Moselle's right bank at the mouth of the Briedeler Bach, which rises in the Hunsrück. Briedel is in the middle of the Briedeler Schweiz ("Briedel Switzerland"), a nature conservation area comprising a woodland area with craggy outcrops, impressive lookout points and well marked hiking trails. To Bernkastel-Kues it is some 42 km, and to Cochem, roughly 41 km. Constituent communities Belonging to the Ortsgemeinde are the centres of Maiermund, Briedeler Heck, Bummkopf and Hohestein, as well as the formerly state-owned domain of Margaretenhof. History Prehistory to AD 500 Digs undertaken in 1870 on the Briedeler Heck showed that the area was settled as early as the New Stone Age. Other digs in 1936-1937 and 1953-1954 unearthed great burying grounds which were rich in grave goods. This established that settlers were here from late Hallstatt times to the end of Roman times, thus over more than a thousand years. In 293, Constantius Chlorus, the Roman proconsul in Trier, apparently took some wine from Briedel with him back to Rome that Emperor Diocletian supposedly greatly enjoyed. About 475, Briedel and the Moselle province passed unequivocally into the Franks’ hands. The Romance-speaking and Romanized inhabitants remained in great numbers along the Moselle valley, living alongside the Frankish conquerors, some in their own settlements, and some in the same settlements as the Franks. The two peoples melded together only gradually. Until the High Middle Ages, the inhabitants had their own "Germano-Romance" language. Linguists assume that Germanization was completed only in the 12th century. Middle Ages: 500 to 1400 About 600, the first church was established with Saint Martin as its patron saint. The first documentary mention came some 150 years later on 20 May 748 when Bishop Chrodegang of Metz, with the later Carolingian King (751–768) but meanwhile Mayor of the Palace Pepin's consent, donated to the newly founded Gorze Abbey near Metz, among many other holdings, the wine tithes at Briedel, which was named in this document as Bredaculo. This also makes the document one of the oldest pieces of evidence for winegrowing