Middle Rhine
Middle Rhine is the section of the Rhine between Bingen and Bonn in Germany. It flows through the Rhine Gorge, a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift in the region, leaving the river at about its original level, and the surrounding lands raised. This gorge is quite deep, about from the top of the rocks down to the average water-line.
The Middle Rhine is one of four sections of the Rhine between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The upper half of the Middle Rhine from Bingen to Koblenz is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a striking cultural landscape with more than 40 castles and fortresses from the Middle Ages, unique terraced vineyards, and many wine villages. The lower half, from Koblenz to Bonn, is famous for the formerly volcanic Siebengebirge, with the Drachenfels volcano. Both parts together are known as "the romantic Rhine".
The Middle Rhine Valley has been a major tourist attraction since the 19th century. It is also home to some 450,000 people. The valley owes its special appearance to both its natural shape and human alterations. For two millennia, it has been one of the most important routes for cultural exchange between the Mediterranean region and northern Europe. Situated in the heart of Europe, it was sometimes a border and sometimes a bridge between different cultures. The history of the valley reflects the history of Western Europe. With its many outstanding monuments, its hills full of vines, its settlements crowded on the narrow river banks, and the rows of castles lined up on the hill tops, it is considered the epitome of the Rhine romanticism. It inspired Heinrich Heine to write his famous poem "Lorelei" and Richard Wagner to write his opera Götterdämmerung.
The vineyards along the Middle Rhine form a wine-growing region of the same name.
Geography
Location
The Rhine Gorge is the narrow gorge of the Rhine flowing through the Rhenish Slate Mountains between Bingen am Rhein and Rüdesheim am Rhein in the South and Bonn-Bad Godesberg and Bonn-Oberkassel in the North. Between Rüdesheim and Lorch, the left bank belongs to the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate; the right bank belongs to the wine region of Rheingau in the state of Hesse. Downstream of Lorch, both banks belong to Rhineland-Palatinate until the river crosses the border with North Rhine-Westphalia shortly before Bonn.The Middle Rhine basin at Neuwied separates the upper and lower halves of the Middle Rhine. On the Namedyer Werth peninsula, is the Andernach Geyser, which at is the highest cold-water geyser in the world. On 7 July 2006, the geyser was reactivated for tourists.
Transport
There are major railway lines on both sides of the river: the West Rhine Railway on the left and the East Rhine Railway on the right. Major roads are the federal roads B9 and B42, and the Rhine itself is a major international waterway.Towns and cities
The most important cities on the left bank are Bingen, Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar, Boppard and Koblenz on the Upper Middle Rhine and Andernach, Bad Breisig, Sinzig, Remagen and Bonn on the Lower Middle Rhine. On the right bank are Rüdesheim, Assmannshausen, Lorch, Kaub, St. Goarshausen, Braubach and Lahnstein on the Upper Middle Rhine and Vallendar, Bendorf, Neuwied, Bad Hönningen, Linz am Rhein, Bad Honnef and Königswinter on the lower part.Tributaries
Larger tributaries on the left include Nahe, Moselle and Ahr; on the right Lahn and Wied.Castles, fortresses and palaces
The most outstanding castles are the Marksburg, the only undamaged hilltop castle in the Middle Rhine Valley, the Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, on a rocky island in the middle of the Rhine, and Rheinfels Castle, which was developed into a fortress over time. Stolzenfels Castle is a synonym for Rhine romanticism like no other. It did not just encourage the acceptance of the existing castles, it also encouraged their restoration and the building of even more castles. The Electoral Palace in Koblenz was the last residence of the Electors of Trier. It was demolished by the French revolutionary army. The most powerful fortress in Rhineland-Palatinate, Koblenz Fortress, was built in the 19th century by the Prussians. Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, once part of the fortification system, dominates the Rhine Valley to this day.The following castles are found along the Middle Rhine, in downstream order:
History
Prehistory
The terraces of the Middle Rhine Valley have been inhabited since the early Iron Age. Evidence of this are the barrow fields around the city forest of Boppard and in the forest of Brey and the ring walls on the Dommelberg in Koblenz and on the giant hill at St. Goarshausen. On the western border of the Middle Rhine region, there are also traces of a Celtic settlement, with the grave pillar of Pfalzfeld and the Waldalgesheim chariot burial. In the 4th century BCE, the area had come under the influence of Mediterranean civilizations. The north-south link between mouth of the Nahe and the Moselle estuary rich already in use in pre-Roman times. The Roman development of the route overlaps in large sections with the route of the modern Bundesautobahn 61Roman period
The Romans settled in the area of the Middle Rhine from the mid-1st century BC to about 400 AD. An important factor was the construction of the Roman Rhine Valley Road between the provincial capitals Mainz and Cologne along the left bank of the Rhine, both on the plateau as on the left bank in the Valley. The Rhine was the border of the Roman Empire, which is why the road had to be constructed on the left bank, just inside the Empire.Traces of significant road construction have been identified near Stahleck Castle at Bacharach. The cities of Bingen and Koblenz are the sites of early Roman fortresses, and Oberwesel housed a Roman Mansio. The fortresses protected agriculture and natural resources against the Germanic tribes of the Tencteri, Usipetes, Menapii and Eburones. The agricultural settlements in the hinterland provided for the people in the cities and military camps.
The Romans used the Rhine for shipping. In the 1st century CE, bridges were constructed at Koblenz across the Rhine and the Moselle. In 83—85 a limes was constructed between the Rhine and the Danube, to protect a weak section of the border. In the 2nd century, the Romans ventured onto the right bank of the Rhine and constructed a fortress at Niederlahnstein. Emperors Constantine and Valentinian safeguarded the frontier by constructing fortresses in Koblenz are and Boppard with strong walls and round towers, of which remnants remain.
In the 5th century, the Alamanni and Franks forced the Romans to withdraw from the area. They took over the Roman cities and the Franconians began founding new cities of their own. Unlike the old Roman cities, the new Franconian cities were independent of the old Roman farmsteads; agriculture and livestock farming took place inside the city. These cities can be recognized by their names ending in -heim.
At the end of the 5th century, the Merovingian king Clovis founded the Franconian Kingdom. Although the Roman population of the area declined steadily, the people spoke a Franco-Roman dialect and the language of administration was Latin. Grave inscriptions from the 4th to the 8th century in Boppard, in the St. Severus Church and the Carmelite Church prove the survival of a small Roman population in addition to the Frankish immigrants.
Middle Ages
The Roman settlements, especially the fortified cities in the Middle Rhine Valley, were taken by the Franconian Kings as Crown possessions. Almost all of the territory between Bingen and Remagen, including the cities of Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar, Boppard, Koblenz and Sinzig, were in royal ownership. The enfeoffment of individual parts of the empire began in the 8th century and continued until the early 14th century. Beneficiaries of the gifts were, among others, the abbots of Prüm and Trier and of the Abbey of St. Maximin and the Archbishops of Cologne, Trier, Mainz and Magdeburg. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen are also governors of the Abbey of Prüm and this allow them to establish their own territory around their seat Burg Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar. When the male line of the Counts dies out in 1479, this territory is inherited by the Landgraves of Hesse.The grandsons of Charlemagne split his Empire in the Treaty of Verdun of 843, which they prepared in the Basilica of St. Castor in Koblenz in 842. The left bank of the Rhine between Bacharach and Koblenz falls to Middle Francia. In 925, Middle Francia is finally becomes the Duchy of Lorraine within East Francia, the German Empire. The Rhine remains the heartland of the royal power, or Vis maxima regni as Otto of Freising called it, until in 1138 Conrad III is elected King of Germany in Koblenz, the first King of the House of Hohenstaufen.
Late Middle Ages
The late Middle Ages were marked on the Middle Rhine by the territorial fragmentation. In addition to the spiritual Electors of Cologne, Mainz and Trier, the Count Palatine had gained influence on the Middle Rhine since Hermann of Stahleck in 1142. Most of the forty castles in the area between Bingen and Koblenz arose during this period as a sign of mutual competition.These castles are interesting examples of late medieval military architecture. They were partly influenced by developments in France, Italy and the Crusader states. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen in particular, excelled as castle builders. They built the Marksburg, Rheinfels Castle, Reichenberg Castle and Katz Castle. Another outstanding ruler in the 14th century was Elector and Archbishop Baldwin of Trier from the House of Luxembourg. His brother King Henry VII, Count of Luxembourg and Roman-German King from 1308, had pledged him the imperial cities of Boppard and Oberwesel, two of the around twenty cities and towns established on the Rhine between Bingen and Koblenz in the 13th and 14th century that had city rights and similar freedoms. Not all of those city rights have resulted in effective urban development, but in almost all these places more or less extensive remnants of the fortifications remain to this day.
Boppard and Oberwesel resisted of integration into a modern territorial state for a long time. Boppard fought battles for the freedom of the city in 1327 and 1497. The grave stone in the popular "wide-track bully" type in the Carmelite church of Boppard of the knight Sifrid of Schwalbach, who fell in 1497, is a testimony to this struggle for local liberties which erupted for the last time in the Palatine Peasants' War of 1525. The City Castle of Boppard, built by Baldwin of Trier in 1340, however, is a monument of the suppression of urban autonomy by territorial princes.
Since the territories of the four Rhenish electors lie close together on the Middle Rhine, these cities have been the venue for countless historically important events, such as imperial diets, electoral diets, royal elections and princely weddings. The most important of these events was the Declaration of Rhense in 1338. Boppard was especially frequently visited ed by German Kings and Emperors. The rulers would then reside with their entourage in the Königshof, outside the city gate. Bacharach was a founding member of the League of Rhine Cities in 1254. King Louis IV the Bavarian resided in Bacharach at the time. The painted Volto Santo by Lucca in the local St. Peter's church is testimony to the reverence for the reverence Louis held for the Lucca archetype and the cultural exchange between imperial Italy and the Middle Rhine.