The cities on the MittelRheine keep dragging me back but their features are beyond compare. Oberwesel boasts a castle lurking from the crags above the city; nothing unique here, you say; don’t all of these cities have a castle on the hill? Well you’re right but Oberwesel not only has an obligatory castle and city walls; it has city walls that you can walk on!
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| Looking back to Oberwesel and Castle Schonburg |
But let's start with the castle. Since the castle is at the highest point, I thought it made sense to climb up there first thing. Autumn is upon us so a brisk walk will certainly warm me up!
The castle is called Schönburg, named for the family who created it. Like all of these principalities, fiefdoms or whatever you want to call them, their existence relied on taxes. Specifically, customs and levies they demanded from all river traffic along the Rhine.
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| Castle Schonburg from the outside ... |
Like many of the castles in this region, it clings to the cliffs above the Rhine and looms large. Historically, the castle, its people and lands would suggest how important the liege lord is; so the more grand and expansive the castle, the better.
Nowadays the castle (again like many of its contemporaries) has been converted to hotel or hostel.
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| ... Castle Schonburg from the inside ... |
Staying overnight in one of these places would be wonderful, especially if a room overlooking the river could be arranged.
Pay the 3 Euro and have a look around the gatehouse museum; the curator of the small museum in the castle is a walking fount of knowledge. And a good salesman; I bought his history of the castle as well! Talking with the curator, he mentioned that at its peak, 300 people lived in the castle. This created its own problems with intrigue and bickering prevalent. Oddly enough, frequent wars and battles began to thin the ranks out; as each family leader was gloriously slaughtered in battle, the clan declined in size until eventually, all of the Schönburgs were dead by the 17th Century; however the castle itself rolled on to have a significant part to play in the 30 Years War and beyond.
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| ... and the view from the top of Schonburg's gatehouse museum |
The other insight he shared with me was that the museum is now on the site of the original gatehouse.The gatehouse had two portcullises; the first one was the standard entrance but the second one was the gate of last resort. Weighing over a tonne, it required only a single blow with an axe or sword to cut the rope and drop the massive gate into position thereby keeping out would be marauders and intruders.
This was done only once in around 1250 or so when the castle was brand new. The problem was, once it was dropped, they couldn't lift it again! Eventually they had to cut the gate into pieces and remove it that way. You only get to find out this sort of thing if you're lucky to find a garrulous curator. The museum is a treat (try the interactive catapult and see if you can destroy the castle!!) and the view from the very top of the tower is worth the admission price on its own.
Let’s now move down to the city and check out these old city walls. For a village or a town to be a genuine, fully fledged city, it required walls. So many of the cities I have visited still have remnants of their walls; given their massive size, this is not a huge surprise but the walls have decayed over the years. A combination of natural erosion and collapses combined with locals helping themselves to handy sized stones and bricks for their own homes tends to reduce the walls more often than not.
So seeing city walls is not that big a deal but being able to walk on top of them is geekily exciting for me. There is something hypnotically historic about this experience. Knowing that these walls have been here for hundreds of years allows you to imagine what they have seen; imagine the guards who once patrolled the walls; imagine the city inhabitants and how their lives have changed over those years. 'If these walls could talk ...' sounds a little trite but it feels most apt as I stroll along the parapets today.
Of course, the walls connect defensive towers and many of these also remain in place. Some seem to be in complete disrepair but others are sturdy enough to climb and take in the views down the Rhine and behind up to the hills and valleys beyond.
Oberwesel allows you to walk the length of the walls along the Rhine but you can only walk beside them for the rest of the journey. But there are still outcrops along the way that allow you to climb up and see the vistas over the city. UNESCO certification seems to bring a requirement to maintain and repair the walls; scaffolding around various sections indicates that repairs are underway as we speak. It may take years but the thought of a genuine restoration of the walls appeals to me. The walls would have always been in a state of flux since first constructed. This would be simply be the latest repair job but how marvellous to return one day and see Oberwesel enclosed as it was 500 or so years ago!
A little reluctantly, I took my leave of Oberwesel and headed back up toward the castle but turned left instead of right to follow the castle trail upstream to catch sight of Pfalzgrafenstein Castle. Built on an island in the middle of the Rhine near the village of Kaub, Pfalzgrafenstein looks astonishing sitting in the centre of the river. Even more so today as the river seems to be flowing quite quickly and high, so the island seems barely big enough to hold the castle.
By climbing the hill and following the castle trail I ensure two things; firstly I get some fantastic views from the heights of the hills over the Rhine but secondly I effectively double the distance of the walk. The trail has to cling to the edges of the hills and valleys so it weaves and wanders where the land will allow. By the time I arrive above the castle, I have walked 7.5km from Oberwesel. When I follow the direct river path back to Oberwesel (and my train home to Bonn) GoogleMaps tells me that is only 3km.
Like the customs soldiers for whom Pfalzgrafenstein was built, the only way across to the castle is via ferry. Fortunately, I don't have to row and the ferry is covered as the rain begins to fall.
From outside, the castle appears to be a single building.
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| Pfalzgrafenstein from the small ferry that runs out from Kaub |
It is only when you get inside that you realize the tall, central tower is separate from the curtain wall. The tower was the first building; the curtain wall with its enclosed rooms was built later leaving a small courtyard between gateway and tower.
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| Interior of Pfalzgrafenstein showing the open courtyard and the only ground floor doorway between the two pikes |
The tower is pentagonal in shape with the point of the pentagon aimed up river. The curtain wall follows a similar design, giving the building a boat shaped look. The shapes were selected to help deflect errant ships as well as ice from smashing directly into and damaging the structure. Again, with only four of us wandering around today, you can get a feel for how it must have been for the customs soldiers in the day. It would have been very isolated and dreadfully cold in the winter; its only October and it was cold enough today! A fireplace was one form of warmth for the soldiers and the building of a bread oven would have provided both warmth and fresh bread. So their pleasures were some heat and fresh bread; a Spartan existence indeed!
The joy of today was the tranquility. With the cooling weather, visitors are struggling to get out and about so there was time and space just to slow down and consider and contemplate. Think about the castle and the multitudes who called it home and their adversaries who tried to knock it down; the city walls and their history; Pfalzgrafenstein and its cold confines making life tough for its inhabitants.
Sitting on a warm train speeding back to Bonn provides an almost surreal backdrop to the places I was lucky enough to see today.
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| A map of the walls of Oberwesel; the green line shows where you can walk while the red shows where the walls remain |
All of this is less than 90 minutes from Bonn and I'm just loving being able to get out and see and experience these wonderful places.
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