Klopp Castle (German : Burg Klopp) is a castle in the town of Bingen am Rhein in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In the nineteenth century, the bergfried (similar to a keep) from the original medieval fortified castle was restored and a new building added which houses the town's administration.
The castle stands on a hill above the town with a wide-ranging view, which may have been the site of a Roman fortification built by Nero Claudius Drusus at Bingium around 10 CE. [1] [2] Drusenburg or Drususburg was an early name for the castle. [3] The hill is one of three locations where local legend says that Emperor Henry IV was imprisoned by his son in 1105 or 1106, this being the first surviving mention of a castle there. [4] [5] [6]
The last medieval castle on the site was built in the 13th century: possibly around 1281, [1] possibly between 1240, when Kloppberg (Klopp Hill) is mentioned as the residence of a churchman, and 1277, the first mention of Burg Clopp. Together with Ehrenfels Castle on the opposite side of the Rhine and later the Mouse Tower, it enabled the Archbishopric of Mainz to exact tolls on river trade. In 1438 the archbishop sold the town and the castle to the cathedral chapter and the townspeople effectively controlled it. The castle was already decaying in the 16th century [7] and was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, but was rebuilt in 1653. [6] The French destroyed it again in 1689 in the War of the Palatine Succession, and in the final phase of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, the Mainz forces themselves blew up what was left to prevent its use by the enemy. [8] Early 19th-century paintings show ruined walls, one connecting the castle to the town, but the castle itself levelled. [9]
The state of Hesse acquired the ruin in 1815 and sold it to Hermann Faber, a lawyer. It was later owned by a Berliner called Rosenthal, [10] who renovated the well. Both charged tourists to climb the gate tower as a viewing platform; [9] Faber built a stairway up the outside of the walls and a viewing room at the top which he furnished with books of poetry, a comfortable sofa and a fully equipped writing desk, and laid out the grounds as a garden with romantic paths through the grapevines, trees and flowers. He also installed an aeolian harp. [11] The castle was one of the major sights of the Romantic Rhine. J.M.W. Turner sketched a view of it from the River Nahe in 1844. [12] By the end of the 19th century, some 75,000 entries had been made in the visitors' book. [13]
In 1853 the gatehouse, the bridge across the moat and the fortifications were rebuilt for Ludwig Maria Cron. The bergfried was rebuilt as a crenellated tower 26 metres high, with four corner turrets. [9] In 1875–79, a new Gothic building was built on the site. The architect for both was the mayor, Eberhard Soherr. [9] [3] [14] The base of the bergfried, the moat and parts of the southern curtain wall and its chemin de ronde are the only remnants of the medieval castle.
The rebuilt bergfried formerly housed the town's local history museum, [1] [2] which moved in 1998 to a former power station on the waterfront. [15] [16] The larger Gothic building has been the seat of government and mayoral residence since 1897. [2] [9] [15] There is also a gourmet restaurant. [17]
Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds.
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km (40 mi) section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rüdesheim in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in Germany. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in June 2002 because of its beauty as a cultural landscape, its importance as a route of transport across Europe, and the unique adaptations of the buildings and terraces to the steep slopes of the gorge.
Rüdesheim am Rhein is a German winemaking town in the Rhine Gorge, and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in this region. It lies in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt, Hessen. Known as Rüdesheim, it is officially Rüdesheim am Rhein, to distinguish it from Rüdesheim an der Nahe. It is a major tourist attraction, especially for foreign visitors.
The Rhine knee or Rhine's knee is the name of several distinctive bends in the course of the river 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 130 metres (430 ft) from the top of the rocks down to the average water-line.
Mainz Hauptbahnhof is a railway station for the city of Mainz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is used by about 60,000 travelers and visitors each day and is therefore by far the busiest station in Rhineland-Palatinate. The station was a trial area for a CCTV scheme using automated face recognition.
The Marksburg is a castle above the town of Braubach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is one of the principal sites of the Rhine Gorge UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fortress was used for protection rather than as a residence for royal families. It has a striking example of a bergfried designed as a butter-churn tower. Of the 40 hill castles between Bingen am Rhein and Koblenz the Marksburg was one of only two which had never been destroyed and at least the only one that had never fallen into disrepair.
Bingen (Rhein) Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Bingen am Rhein on the West Rhine Railway. It is located in the borough of Bingerbrück. The station that serves central Bingen is called Bingen Stadt.
Boppard Hauptbahnhof is a station in the town of Boppard in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located on the outskirts of the town near the Rhine. It is at a railway junction on the West Rhine Railway between Köln Hauptbahnhof and Mainz Hauptbahnhof, and it is the starting point of the Hunsrück Railway (Hunsrückbahn) to Emmelshausen. It has three platform tracks.
Niederheimbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Oberdiebach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Trechtingshausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Rhine Castle trail - Rheinburgenweg, follows the left side of the Rhine from Bingen to Remagen-Rolandseck and the right side takes the route of the Rheinsteig from Rüdesheim am Rhein to Koblenz.
Reichenstein Castle, also known as Falkenburg is a castle in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It stands on a mountain spur on the eastern slope of the Bingen Forest, above the Rhineland-Palatinate municipality of Trechtingshausen in the Mainz-Bingen district in Germany.
Ehrenfels Castle is a ruined hillside castle above the Rhine Gorge near the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the steep eastern bank of the river amid extended vineyards. The grape variety Ehrenfelser is named after the castle.
Sooneck Castle is a castle in the upper middle valley of the Rhine, in the Mainz-Bingen district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located near the village of Niederheimbach between Bingen and Bacharach.
The Rhine romanticism was the interpretation of the landscape conditions and history of the Rhine Valley in the cultural-historical period of the romanticism, by the end of the 18th century until the late 19th century and was continued in all forms of art expression.
Bingen (Rhein) Stadt station is, after Bingen Hauptbahnhof, the second largest station in the town of Bingen am Rhein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The station is located on the West Rhine Railway between Koblenz to Mainz. Furthermore, the station is the beginning and end of the Rheinhessen Railway to/from Worms. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.
The Brömserburg is a castle located near the banks of the Rhine in the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein in Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the German state of Hesse. Its original structure was probably one of the first stone castles in the Rhine Gorge, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
49°57′58.8″N7°53′47.7″E / 49.966333°N 7.896583°E
Castles, Fortresses and Palaces in Germany - The Middle Rhine Valley (North to South) | ||
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| Lower Middle Rhine Valley | ||
| Upper Middle Rhine Valley |
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