Messel

Messel
Messel
Coordinates
Administration
Country Germany
State Hesse
Admin. region Darmstadt
District Darmstadt-Dieburg
Mayor Udo Henke
Basic statistics
Area 14.82 km2 (5.72 sq mi)
Elevation 172 m  (564 ft)
Population 3,792 (31 December 2010)[1]
 - Density 256 /km2 (663 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate DA
Postal code 64409
Area code 06159
Website www.messel.de

Messel is a municipality in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hesse near Frankfurt am Main in Germany.

The village is first mentioned, as Masilla, in the Lorsch codex. Messel was the property of the lords of Groschlag from ca. 1400 to 1799. After the extinction of the Groschlag male lineage, the village would have passed to the Archbishopric of Mainz but the population refused to accept this transition and paid homage to the daughters of the Groschlag family instead. The minister of the archbishopric, von Albini, consequently occupied the village with a force of 50 hussars. In 1806, the village fell to the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

The nearby Messel pit is an important site for Eocene fossils.

References