Located south of the industrial city of Mainz and about 15 miles northwest of Worms, Alzey, Germany is a little-known village located in the Rhine River Valley. With a population of about 1,000, the town dates from Roman times and was an important town during the Roman occupation and was known as the Roman Alataia. Today, it's a quiet village that no one stops to see, but I got to see what small-town Germany looked like during a day trip in September 2001.
Like many German cities and towns, Alzey has a castle in the Eastern part of the old town that dates from the 11th Century and went under a huge renovation in 1902. It, like other castles in small villages, is an important administrative building and houses several local political offices and is not open to the public.
After touring the Altmarkt or Old Town, you can walk to the Fischmarkt (Fish Market) which houses the Renaissance Town Hall with Carillon (1586) before heading north to the Rossmarkt which has the most awesome fountain with a Trojan like horse statue drinking out of it.
For a reality check, go onto one of the side roads where a memorial to the Jewish population of Alzey resides. Located on the former site of Alzey's synagogue, the memorial is a huge plaque that has the names of the hundreds of Jewish residents who perished in the Nazi concentration camps. Like the big cities, Alzey wasn't immune from the horrors of the Holocaust and about 100 Jewish residents fled Alzey and were able to emigrate to the USA or other European countries after Hitler's rise to power in January 1933. On November 9-10, Alzey's only synagogue was destroyed by Nazi thugs during Kristallnacht and was never rebuilt. It is a startling reminder to one that even small villages were not immune to the horrors of Fascism.
I didn't have a chance to visit it, but in the Amtshaus, there is the Municipal Museum which has an extensive history about Alzey and its people.
Alzey has several hotels in town, and is a good jumping off point for those who want to visit Mainz and other cities in the Rhine River Valley. It is worth a short period of time if you are visiting the Rhine River Valley.