Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(like medieval stained glass in churches). Frau Weber welcomes visitors to enjoy the fascin-
ating ground floor of the recommended Altes Haus restaurant, with its evocative old photos
and etchings (consider eating here later).
• Keep going down Oberstrasse to the...
Old Mint (Münze):
The old mint is marked by a crude coin in its sign. Across from the
mint,therecommended
Bastian
family'swinegardenisalivelyplaceafterdark.Aboveyou
in the vineyards stands a lonely white-and-red tower—your final destination.
• At the next street, look right and see the mint tower, painted in the medieval style, and then
turnleft.Wander30yardsupRosenstrassetothe
well.
Noticethesundialandthewallpaint-
ing of 1632 Bacharach with its walls intact. Climb the tiny-stepped lane behind the well up
into the vineyard and to the...
Tall Tower:
The slate steps lead to a small path through the vineyard that deposits you
at a viewpoint atop the stubby remains of the old town wall. If the tower's open, hike to its
top floor for the best view.
Romantic Rhine View:
A grand medieval town spreads before you. For 300 years
(1300-1600), Bacharach was big (population 4,000), rich, and politically powerful.
From this perch, you can see the chapel ruins and six surviving
city towers.
Visually
trace the wall to the castle. The castle was actually the capital of Germany for a couple of
years in the 1200s. When Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa went away to fight
the Crusades, he left his brother (who lived here) in charge of his vast realm. Bacharach was
home to one of seven electors who voted for the Holy Roman Emperor in 1275. To protect
their own power, these prince electors did their best to choose the weakest guy on the bal-
lot. The elector from Bacharach helped select a two-bit prince named Rudolf von Habsburg
(from a no-name castle in Switzerland). However, the underestimated Rudolf brutally si-
lenced the robber barons along the Rhine and established the mightiest dynasty in European
history. His family line, the Habsburgs, ruled much of Central and Eastern Europe from Vi-
enna until 1918.
Plagues, fires, and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) finally did in Bacharach. The
town,withapopulationofabout2,000,hasslumberedforseveralcenturies.Today,thecastle
houses commoners—40,000 overnights annually by youth hostelers.
Inthemid-19thcentury,painterssuchasJ.M.W.TurnerandwriterssuchasVictorHugo
were charmed by the Rhineland's romantic mix of past glory, present poverty, and rich le-
gend. They put this part of the Rhine on the old Grand Tour map as the “Romantic Rhine.”
Victor Hugo pondered the ruined 15th-century chapel that you see under the castle. In his
1842travelbook,
ExcursionsAlongtheBanksofRhine,
hewrote,“Nodoors,norooforwin-
dows, a magnificent skeleton puts its silhouette against the sky. Above it, the ivy-covered
