Near the village and in the outlying centre of Niederkyll, many finds from Roman times have been unearthed during excavation work. In the lists of the Archiepiscopal Cathedraticum, which come from about 1100, is a mention of the village under the name Kyll. In the 13th century, the village quickly grew in importance. About 1250 it was raised to town and thereby also acquired the right to bear a coat of arms; the one borne then matches the one borne today. In 1292, it had already become a town girded with a wall and with a castle. In 1308, it had its first documentary mention as "Stadtkyll-Opidum" in the "Liber valoris". Over the course of its history, Stadtkyll has been beset by several catastrophes. In 1632, in the Thirty Years' War, an army of mercenaries set most of the village on fire. In 1687, the French destroyed the village. In 1814 and again in 1854, great fires burnt Stadtkyll down. After these fires, the old town wall served as a quarry of sorts for building material to rebuild the village. The wall completely disappeared as a result, and its alignment can now only be made out in the rows of houses on Burgbergstraße.