Pünderich 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. Geography The municipality lies on the river Moselle inside a bend, on the right bank, not far upstream from Zell, which lies roughly away as the crow flies. History Name The placename Pünderich is of Celtic origin. The oldest known name for the place is Pontaricum, meaning “Place with Ferry” or “Ferryman’s Place”. Roman and Frankish times Things such as ceramics and coins have been found in districts of Pünderich, suggesting a Roman settlement from the 1st century BC until the 3rd to 4th century AD. About 250, the Franks showed up in the region for the first time. Only 25 years later, they went along with the Alamanni plundering the Moselle valley, leaving extensive destruction in their wake. Between 408 and 460 also came troubled times as Vandals, Suebi and Franks once more marauded across the land. Trade and transport collapsed utterly. In the 6th century, the Frankish kings Christianized the Moselle valley and the first church in the Zeller Hamm – the local bow in the Moselle – arose. In 882, however, the Norman invasions led to a cultural collapse in the region. First documentary mention In 1128, Pünderich had its first documentary mention in a document in which Pope Honorius II bequeathed an estate in Pundricho to the Springiersbach Monastery. An even older document describes a vineyard in the cadastral area of “Zinselt”, across the river from Pünderich near the former ford on the Moselle. Other documents from between 1143 and 1148 name the village as Punterche, Pundriche, Punderacha or Pondreka. Church history Pünderich had very early on a relationship to the Marienburg, a now dissolved Augustinian convent. The church on the Petersberge was once the mother church to the branch churches in Zell, Kaimt, Corray, Merl and Pünderich. After the convent was dissolved in 1515 by Archbishop Richard von Greiffenklau, the nuns, under protest, had to move to “Mullay”, a forlorn dwelling diagonally across the river from Burg. The likelihood is high that a parish had been established at Pünderich beginning in 1515. Confirming this is the church's building date, which can be reliably reckoned to be 1529. This church had a length of