St. Peter’s Church, Bacharach, Rhine Gorge, Middle Rhine, Rhine Province, Germany
Image by Billy Wilson Photography
"The church St. Peter in Bacharach is a former collegiate church. It has been Protestant since the Reformation in the Electoral Palatinate in 1556 and belongs to the Evangelical Church Community of Vierthäler in the Koblenz Parish District of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland.
Since 2002, the Church of St. Peter has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley, and it is also a protected cultural asset according to the Hague Convention.
St. In Bacharach, Peter represents the Rhine transitional style. The church was built from 1230 to 1269 as a three-aisled gallery basilica and was renovated at the end of the 19th century. Despite the largely Romanesque construction, the four-story wall elevation was based on the Early Gothic of French church building, which was particularly popular at this time in Rhineland was often used as a model. From 1194 to Reformation St. Peter belonged to the Cologne Andreas-Stift. The monastery provided the pastor and was responsible for ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the quarter area, which had its seat in the old Electoral Cologne Saalhof opposite the church. In 1810 the French administration tore down the Saalhof, and today the Altkölnische Saal.
The hillside location and the limited space required a floor plan with a short length. The proportions of the central nave are correspondingly steep. To the east, the non-protruding transept is adjoined by a semicircular apse with from the same period forms the conclusion. roof pyramid, the crenellated, late Gothic upper floor of which dates from 1478. A slender, eight-sided nave, flanked by two round choir towers. The church building is dominated by the west tower, which protrudes into the Dwarf gallery.
Bacharach (pronunciation, also known as Bacharach am Rhein) 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.
The original name Baccaracus suggests a Celtic origin. Above the town stands Stahleck Castle (Burg Stahleck), now a youth hostel.
The town lies in the Rhine Gorge, 48 km south of Koblenz.
In the early 11th century, Bacharach had its first documentary mention. It may have been that as early as the 7th century, the kingly domain passed into Archbishop of Cologne Kunibert’s ownership; pointing to this is a Kunibertskapelle (chapel) on the spot where now stands the Wernerkapelle. The Vögte of the Cologne estate were the Elector of the Palatinate, who over time pushed back Cologne’s influence. Count Palatine already had so much influence that he resided at Stahleck Castle. His successor Konrad von Staufen’s daughter secretly wed at Stahleck Castle a son of the Welfs, who were family foes, leading to Bacharach’s, and indeed the whole County Palatine’s, falling for a short time to Henry of Brunswick. In 1214 the Wittelsbachs became Bacharach’s new lords. Together with the Unteramt of Kaub they received here their most important toll and revenue source. In 1314 it was decided to choose Louis the Bavarian as the German king. Furthermore, Bacharach was the most important transfer point for the wine trade, as barrels were offloaded here from the smaller ships that were needed to get by the Binger Loch (a quartzite reef in the Rhine upstream near Bingen) and loaded onto bigger ones. From then on, the wine bore the designation Bacharacher. The timber trade from the Hunsrück also brought Bacharach importance, and in 1356, Bacharach was granted town rights.
Widely visible is the Wernerkapelle, a Rheinromantik landmark of the town, lying on the way up to Stahleck Castle from the town. It is the expanded Kunibertkapelle, and is still an unfinished Gothic ruin today. Its namesake is Werner of Oberwesel, known in connection with pogroms triggered by his death. According to the Christian blood libel, which was typical of the times, a 16-year-old Werner was murdered on Maundy Thursday 1287 by members of the local Jewish community, who then used his blood for Passover observances. On the grounds of this alleged ritual murder, there arose an anti-Semitic mob who waged a pogrom, wiping out Jewish communities in the Middle and Lower Rhine and Moselle regions. In folk Christianity arose the cult of Werner, which was only stricken from the Bishopric of Trier calendar in 1963.
Mittelrhein (or Middle Rhine) is a region (Anbaugebiet) for quality wine in Germany, and is located along a 120 km stretch of river Rhine in the tourist portions of the Rhine region known as Middle Rhine. On the left bank of Rhine, vineyards begin immediately downstream of the Nahe estuary and last until Koblenz. On the right bank, vineyards begin where Rheingau ends and last until 8 kilometers south of Bonn, in the Siebengebirge. Parts of the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage since 2002, make up the southern part of Mittelrhein.
The region’s 448 hectares (1,110 acres) of vineyards (2013 situation) are dominated by white wine grapes (85%) to a higher extent than any other wine region of Germany with the exception of Mosel. With the much-appreciated Riesling being the most grown variety at 68% of the vineyards, and considering the vicinity to the world-famous regions Rheingau and Mosel, it could perhaps be expected that Mittlerhein would enjoy a commercial success. In reality, the situation is quite the opposite. In between 1989 and 2009 the Middle Rhine lost 36% of its total area of vines under cultivation, while the nationwide development shows a plus of 7.37% Since the region’s planted area has been shrinking for quite some time, the region’s wines are hardly ever seen on export markets, and seem to be rather unknown even inside Germany. The underlying reasons are manifold.
The must per hectare comparison of German wine growing regions shows that in average, the Middle Rhine ranks 3rd lowest in output per hectare with an average of 68 hl / ha between 2001 and 2012. Only Saale-Unstrut (56 hl/ha) and Saxony (45 hl/ha) yield a lower output. The nationwide average over the same time frame comes up to 91 hl/ha. Hence, in a ten-year average, the Middle Rhine region only yields 75% of the nation’s average hectolitre per hectare output.[6] In 2012, the output per hectare was 59 hl / ha, hence even 13% less than the ten year average of the region and 35% less than the average national output for 2012. In 2013, there were greater difficulties for harvesting and production. The bad weather conditions throughout the year led to minimal output, especially for late ripening grapes like Riesling, by far the most grown variety. Many quality producers only harvested 30 hl / ha, and some producers less. Despite these low yields, the region’s wines in the 2013 vintage were of a high quality, and prices remained stable and low.
From countless conversations to wine growers in and outside the area, the conclusions on the underlying reasons are various. On one side, the area is vulnerable to the climate conditions of the respective vintage year; on the other side, there is an ongoing trend to forfeit quantity for the sake of quality. The most hyped wineries all over the world get worked up on only selecting the best grapes by hand. Due to the region’s geological conditions, this is usual practice on the Middle Rhine. The difference: Prices don’t quadruple because of this fact.
The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km 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.
The region’s rocks were laid down in the Devonian period and are known as Rhenish Facies. This is a fossil-bearing sedimentary rock type consisting mainly of slate. The rocks underwent considerable folding during the Carboniferous period. The gorge was carved out during a much more recent uplift to leave the river contained within steep walls 200 m high, the most famous feature being the Loreley.
The gorge produces its own microclimate and has acted as a corridor for species not otherwise found in the region. Its slopes have long been terraced for agriculture, in particular viticulture which has good conditions on south-facing slopes. Most of the vineyards belong to the wine region Mittelrhein, but the southernmost parts of the Rhine Gorge fall in Rheingau and Nahe.
The river has been an important trade route into central Europe since prehistoric times and a string of small settlements has grown up along the banks. Constrained in size, many of these old towns retain a historic feel today. With increasing wealth, roughly 40 hilltop castles were built and the valley became a core region of the Holy Roman Empire. It was at the centre of the Thirty Years’ War, which left many of the castles in ruins, a particular attraction for today’s cruise ships which follow the river. At one time forming a border of France, in the 19th century the valley became part of Prussia and its landscape became the quintessential image of Germany.
This part of the Rhine features strongly in folklore, such as a legendary castle on the Rhine being the setting for the opera Götterdämmerung. The annual Rhine in Flames festivals include spectacular firework displays at Sankt Goar in September and Koblenz in August, the best view being from one of a convoy of boats." – info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
