Welcome to Cochem
Cochem - a short introduction - The pearl of the River Moselle I
n the most romantic part of the Moselle Valley, where the river curves between two hiking paradises - Eifel and Hunsrück - lies the old town of Cochem.
Even the Romans sang the praises of this remarkable landscape. It is true - a few things have changed since then, but the attraction has remained because the past centuries - above all the Middle Ages - have left their marks here.
The magnificent Reichsburg, the big castle, situated on a precipitous rock high above the town, dominates the landscape. The many delicate pointed towers, battlements and oriels give the impression of a typical fairy tale castle, particularly as it is one of the few castles in Germany, which was rebuilt in its original style after its complete destruction.
As impressive as the castle itself is the view of the Moselle Valley with its beautiful forests, meadows, fields and vineyards, as well as the old part of the town.
The town of Cochem itself is a sight worth seeing, not only because of its narrow streets and twisty alleys, the lovingly restored half timbered houses with the typical slate roofs, the historical market-place, but also because of its medieval town gates, churches and walls. The wine-growers and restaurant owners would also like to take the time to introduce you to the variety of their excellent Riesling wines.
You can enjoy another facet of the town walking along the Mosel promenade which is decorated with flowers and where many benches invite you to a quiet break.
A further attraction is a river tour on one of the Moselle boats, either during the day or at night with music and dancing, when the lights of the castle and the town are reflected in the water.
Have fun and relax in the only indoor swimming pool with artificial waves in this area.
It is a wonderfully situated leisure centre between meadows and vine-yards and offers all the luxury of a modern swimming pool in fine and bad weather.
Vacation and Recreation in Cochem
Cochem is the recognized centre of a geographical area especially well suited for tourism. There are over 3.300 beds in area hotels, pensions and vacation homes. Of the 350.000 annual overnight guests, 150.000 are foreigners. There are also three large camping areas.
Nestled in the romantic Moselle valley and in the shadow of the magical Cochem castle, Cochem offers a large palette of vacation opportunities: chair lift rides up the hills, a recreation center with wave pool, a special playground for children (Kinderland), a heated swimming pool, miniature golf, tennis courts, a bowling alley, bike rental, yacht ports, etc. The Moselle is a paradise for water sports and fishing. A network of hiking paths leads through vineyards and forests.
Winery tours, wine seminars, and wine-tastings are evidence of the popularity of the Cochem area. Along with the traditional Wine Festivals there are also many medieval-style festivals. Castle tours, historical city tours und trips with the "Moselle Wine Express" are also offered. Evenings offer opportunities for dancing and local entertainment.
Throughout the year there are many events in the resort town of Cochem. The season begins with the Easter Market two weeks before Easter. It continues with the Moselle Wine Week in mid-June. Over 300 wines are offered for sampling at twelve wine stands.
On the first weekend in August the Cochem castle invites "ladies and gentlemen, young and old, rich and poor" to the Castle Festival.
The highlight of the festivities is the annual Hometown and Wine Festival with its firework show. The festival takes place the last weekend in August. The year's new wine can be sampled at the New Wine Festival at the beginning of November. The Christmas Market awakens the Christmas spirit.
The Market also ends the annual schedule of events.
For further information concerning vacation and recreation:
Tourist-Information Centre, Endertplatz 1, 56812 Cochem
Phone: (++49)(0)2671-60040 (Fax: 600444), E-mail: info@ferienland-cochem.de.
The Sights Of Cochem
Worth seeing are the remains of the old town wall, for example the "Endert gate Tower" with its adjoining Guard House dating back to 1332, the fortified tower and "Balduin's gate" near the churchyard wall in the "Obergasse", the "Burgfrieden gate" and gangway, the beautiful baroque styled town hall built in 1739, the market-place with its "Martin's Fountain" and the old gabled houses built on steep, narrow alleys.
Old winding stone steps lead from the market-place up to the top of the "Klosterberg".
At the crest you will see the old Capuchin monastery, which was built in 1630 and dissolved in 1802. Since then it has stood empty.
It is now converted into a cultural centre.
The steep, up-hill walk to see Cochem Castle is well worth the effort. This castle was built around the year 1000, destroyed in 1689 and rebuilt between 1874 and 1877.
Also worth seeing are the ruins of Winneburg Castle, built on a mountain ridge in the "Enderttal". Also recommended are excursions to Castle Eltz, to Beilstein, to the Eifel, the famous Formula One Speedway "Nürburgring", to Koblenz where the River Rhine and the River Moselle meet, or to Trier, Germany's oldest city.
History of Cochem
The history of Cochem in Celtic, Roman and early Middle Ages is unknown. It is first mentioned in a document of the Abbey of Prüm dated 20. XII 866. The noble matron Hieldilda donated a number of properties to the monastery, including a manor house "in villa cucheme". Here in the fortified castle the Rhenish counts palatine, the Ezzonen, held court until 1151. It was probably built by one of them, Ehrenfried, the brother-in-law of Emperor Otto. Richeza, his daughter, married Miseco, King of Poland, but after his death was driven out of Poland and returned to the Moselle, living the rest of her long life alternately in Cochem and Coraidelstein by Klotten. A less glorious role was played by Count palatine Hermann of Salm and Luxemburg, who was put forward as an alternative monarch to Emperor Henry IV in the investiture conflict.
In 1085 he was defeated by the Emperor, after which he engaged in various adventures along the Moselle Valley before being killed in front of his own Cochem Castle in 1088.
He does not seem to have earned much respect, his nickname being the "Garlic King".
The disputes between the Reineckers and the Stahleckers of the Rhine over the title of count palatine was finally settled in 1151 when the Hohenstaufe Konrad III, coming from Boppard, overran the castle and occupied it as an imperial fief.
Cochem remained imperial property and a royal customs town until 1294. The castle came under the command of the nobles of the house of Klotten, who occasionally resorted to becoming robber barons. Indeed in 1282 Rudolf of Habsburg was obliged to lay siege to the castle and call Count Cuno, lord of the castle, to account for his activities of this type. The "Burgfrieden" below the castle and also the "Herrenstraße" were occupied by nobles who had sworn allegiance to the lord of the castle and enjoyed freedom from the burdens and duties imposed on the other inhabitants.
The "Empire of Cochem", an extensive area covering the future magistratures of Cochem, Kaisersesch and Mayen as well as the "Cröver Empire", Springiersbach and the Kondelwald, effectively formed a barrier between the two parts of the Archbishopric of Trier, the Upper and Lower Dioceses. In 1294 the impoverished King Adolf of Nassau fulfilled the wish of the Trier archbishops by mortgaging Cochem to Archbishop Boemund I. The mortgage was never repaid and Cochem continued to belong to the territory of the Electorate of Trier until 1794.
Thus began a happy and prosperous time for the castle, town and newly formed magistrature of Cochem. The motto of the day, "Life under the crosier can be quite pleasant" was not without foundation. Archbishop Balduin (1307 - 1354), brother of Emperor Henry VII of Luxemburg, further extended the castle.
The Moselle Way was also extended and Kemplon fortress built. Cochem received its town charter in 1332 and was fortified. Distinguished families such as von Dietz an der Lahn, von Ulmen, Bürresheim, Arras and Monreal were proud to be associated with the castle. The Winnenburgs, whose fortress in the Endert valley probably dates from 1200, and later the Metternichs held court in the Markt and dominated life in the town. The leading figures from the Electorate liked to visit Cochem often, and in 1512 Archbishop Richard of Greiffenklau and his guest Emperor Maximilian I led a procession to the town and St. Martin's Church.
However, Cochem was not spared less fortunate times. St. Peter's Chapel, below the castle, recalls the years of the plague (1423 - 1425). During the 30 Years' War bands of robbers such as the Moselle band mentioned in the journal "Simplizissimus" left their mark. But the worst came in 1688 and 1689.
In 1687, Louis XIV's master builder of military buildings Vauban had built Montroyal fortress near Traben-Trabach. From here the French filled the Moselle Valley with violence and terror. Again and again magistrates and town clerks travelled to Montroyal to try to obtain relief. In 1689 Winneburg Castle was attacked and burned, and two days later the same lieutenant du Saxis turned Cochem Castle into a holocaust in broad daylight.
When imperial and Electorate forces reoccupied the town, the French decided to counter-attack. On 25 August they stormed the town, slaughtered the weak garrison and a large part of the population, and set fire to the town and the Capuchin monastery, the defenders' last refuge.
This left the town impoverished and deserted.
Reconstruction was slow, in part using materials from Montroyal fortress, which in turn had itself been razed to the ground. The parish church tower was not completed until 1733. During the course of the 18th century Cochem became more and more a centre of commerce. Every week the market ship sailed to Koblenz, laden with goods and merchants. For the Frankfurt Fair Cochem rigged out a ship and sold spices, ironmongery, corn, wood, leather, and the finest Cochem cloth. A large number of inns sprang up, their signs forming a chain from gable to gable, with the Bear greeting the Ox, the Swan the Lion, the Holy Spirit the Sun, and so on. The Double Eagle, the German Emperor, the Roman King and the Court of Cologne were well-to-do inns, situated mostly on the banks of the Moselle, and catering to the upper classes. In the early 19th century a travel writer marvelled at the fact that Cochem "had as many wine and beer taverns as Breslau, the second largest city in Prussia with more than 90.000 inhabitants".
In 1796 Cochem was occupied by French Revolutionary troops and subsequently, together with the entire Rhineland, came under the wing of France. Troup movements, taxes and billeting brought about increased prices and poverty, which in turn led to the formation of bands of robbers roaming the Moselle Valley, the Eifel and above all the Hunsrück.
At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Cochem was given once and for all to the Kingdom of Prussia and in 1816 became the administrative centre of the newly created district authority. The crazy days of 1848/49 led to the formation of the "merry democracy of Cochem". Grandiose speeches were made in the Sun and the Customs House (nowadays the Union Hotel). Even today at Carnival time a song can be heard in Cochem telling about the "year when it was Carnival all year round".
Between 1869 and 1877 the Berlin privy councillor Ravené had the ruined castle rebuilt according to old plans from 1576.
In 1942 the castle became the property of the state. The rebuilding coincided with the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel, which reduced the "Cochem Hairpin" from 21 to 4.2 km and was the longest tunnel in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1987.
Since 1978 the castle has belonged to the citizens of the town of Cochem.
The two fishing villages of Cond and Sehl developed independently of Cochem, and for many years Cond belonged to the territory of Stablo-Malmedy imperial abbey. The Moselle bridge was completed in 1927 and in 1932 Cochem and Cond were combined into one town. The stationing of an air force squadron near Cochem in 1956 led to the development of the Brauheck district of Cochem.
In the early 19th century the first real tourists came to Cochem, filled with romantic enthusiasm. Foremost among them were English artists who recorded the beauties of the Moselle Valley in their drawings and paintings. The development of Cochem into the first real tourist centre on the Moselle came in the 1930s.
More Information you will find here Webcam Cochem
08.05.2009, 16:48 von
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Sonntag, 05. September 2010, 07:08
Da wo der Fluß besonders romantisch ist liegt die kleine Stadt Cochem und Touristen aus aller Welt geniessen dort Ihren Urlaub. Man spaziert am Ufer der Mosel entlang, nimmt einen Kaffee oder ein Glas Mosel Riesling in einem der zahlreichen Strassencafés und bewundert die Kreuzfahrtschiffe und kleinen Yachten die auf der Mosel vorbeiziehen. Cochem wirkt irgendwie mediterran sagte einmal ein Besucher und er hat recht. Die Reichsburg bestimmt aus allen Blickwinkeln das Bild und ist ganz sicher eines der meist fotografierten Motive in Deutschland. Aber Cochem hat mehr zu bieten, Wandern, Wassersport, Nordic Walking, Weinproben und Geselligkeit am Abend. Von hier aus erreicht man schnell die Sehenswürdigkeiten der ganzen Gegend und die vielen Hotels und Pensionen sind ganz auf ihre internationalen Gäste eingestellt und bieten eine Unterkunft für jeden Geschmack. Mehr Infos über Cochem findet man Moseltal.de
ehr als 100 m über der Mosel erhebt sich auf einem markanten Kegel das spätgotische Bauwerk mit seinem unvergleichlichen Umriss. Die äußere Kontur des aufragenden Berges scheint sich im Gebäude fortzusetzen und gipfelt im Schieferdach des wuchtigen Turmes. Die bauliche Beschaffenheit ordnet die Anlage in den Typus der Höhenburgen ein, die geländebedingt auf eine Rundumverteidigung eingestellt waren.
