majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Mayor Moselkern’s mayor is Peter Mayer. Coat of arms The German blazon reads: The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Sable a pall wavy argent between, in chief a lion rampant erased below the shoulders Or armed and langued gules, in dexter the Moselkern Merovingian gravestone of the third and in sinister a mitre of the same. The wavy pall (the Y-shaped ordinary) refers to the municipality’s location at the mouth of the Elzbach, where it flows into the Moselle. The gravestone charge is an image of one unearthed about 1800 in Moselkern. It is of Merovingian origin and dates from the 7th century. It is one of the Western World’s earliest monumental Christian images. The mitre recalls the church’s patron saint, Valerius. His image can be found on the seals used by the court and Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”) from 1562 and 1765. The arms were designed by A. Friderichs of Zell and have been borne since 12 February 1982. Culture and sightseeing Buildings The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Saint Valerius’s Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Valerius), Oberstraße 57 – aisleless church, 1788-1790, Romanesque west tower, gate portal marked 1781; above the gate portal a pietà, marked 1681; Merovingian gravestone (cast); missionary cross, 18th century; attendant figures of the old high altar, 18th century; grave cross, 1755; basalt cross, 1766; tomb slab, 1791; Coronation of the Virgin, early 18th century; tomb with vase; warriors’ memorial, Baroque Revival pylon with relief Am Bahnhof – railway station; one-floor reception hall, timber-frame goods shed, two-floor commercial wing with dwelling, Swiss chalet style, 1909; whole complex with tracks Bergweg 1 – quarrystone building, about 1900/1910 Elztalstraße – Alte Lohmühle (“Old Dyeing Mill”); 19th century; Late Historicist quarrystone villa, late 19th century; two quarrystone mill buildings; factory building; whole complex with garden Fährstraße 2 – Hotel “Burg Eltz”; three-floor quarrystone building, marked 1902 Kirchstraße 2 – building with half-hipped roof, marked 1767 Kirchstraße 5 – timber-frame house, partly solid, marked 1629 Kirchstraße/corner of Moselstraße – garden with corner pavilions Moselstraße – two-arch bridge, marked 1892 Moselstraße 5 – former Halfenhaus (house for a tenant who owed the landlord half his earnings); timber-frame building, partly solid, half-hipped roof, marked 1738 Moselstraße 10 – niche figure, 19th