Rhine Gorge

Upper Middle Rhine Valley
UNESCO World Heritage Site
St. Goarshausen, castle Katz with Loreley rock in the Rhineland-Palatinate
Location	Rheinland Pfalz and Hessen in Germany
Criteria	Cultural: (ii), (iv), (v)
Reference	1066
Inscription	2002 (26th Session)
Area	27,250 ha (67,300 acres)
Buffer zone	34,680 ha (85,700 acres)
Coordinates	50°10′25″N 7°41′39″E / 50.1736°N 7.69417°E / 50.1736; 7.69417
Location of Rhine Gorge in Germany

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.^[1]

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.^[1] 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.

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Towns and cities along the gorge

Koblenz (west+east)
Lahnstein (east)
Rhens (west)
Braubach (east)
Boppard (west)
St. Goarshausen (east) and almost directly opposite
Sankt Goar (west) by the Loreley rock (east)
Oberwesel (west)
Kaub (east)
Bacharach (west)
Lorch (east)
Assmannshausen (east)
Bingen (west)
Rüdesheim (east)

Gallery

View of Burg Katz, with the Lorelei in the background
Aerial image of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in the area of Sankt Goarshausen with the Lorelei at the bottom of the image
Koblenz, the northern gateway to the World Heritage Site, with the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress
Deutsches Eck, at the confluence of Rhine and Moselle
Stolzenfels Castle, near Koblenz, the epitome of the Rhine romanticism
Marksburg Castle, the only hilltop castle in the Middle Rhine Valley that was never destroyed
View from the left bank of the Rhine near St. Goar on the Lorelei
Stamp from 2006, showing the World Heritage Site
Burg Pfalzgrafenstein in the middle of the river, at Kaub, in the background Burg Gutenfels
Werner Chapel at Bacharach
Burg Rheinstein, the first castle to be rebuilt in the 19th century
Binger Loch, the southern gateway to the gorge; on the left the Mouse Tower, on the right Burg Ehrenfels Castle
The Niederwalddenkmal monument, with Germania (personification), at Rüdesheim
One of the oldest surviving church building in the World Heritage area, the Basilica of St. Castor in Koblenz
Rhein in Flammen in 2011, before the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress at Koblenz
Burg Stahleck Castle
Middle Rhine Valley at Kaub
Rhine Cable Railway at Koblenz

Rhine Gorge between Trechtingshausen and Bacharach

References

^ ^a ^b "Upper Middle Rhine Valley". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 2 September 2022.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

Upper Middle Rhine Valley – UNESCO World Heritage Centre

v t e World Heritage Sites in Germany
For official site names, see each article or the List of World Heritage Sites in Germany.
Northern	ADGB Trade Union School Berlin Modernism Housing Estates Bremen Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace Fagus Factory in Alfeld Hedeby and the Danevirke Archaeological Border Complex St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin Hanseatic City of Lübeck Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus in Hamburg Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar
Central	Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm ~~Dresden Elbe Valley~~ (delisted in 2009) Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region¹ Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg Muskauer Park / Park Mużakowski² Naumburg Cathedral Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg Wartburg Castle Classical Weimar
Western	Aachen Cathedral Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe Cologne Cathedral Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey Upper Middle Rhine Valley Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier Speyer Cathedral ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz Great Spa Towns of Europe⁸ Völklingen Ironworks Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen
Southern	Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier Augsburg Water Management System Town of Bamberg Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Bavaria⁷ Frontiers of the Roman Empire:³ Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes Maulbronn Monastery Complex Margravial Opera House Monastic Island of Reichenau Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof Pilgrimage Church of Wies Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps⁴ Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square
Natural	Messel Pit Fossil Site Ancient Beech Forests⁵ Wadden Sea⁶
¹ Shared with the Czech Republic ² Shared with Poland ³ Shared with the United Kingdom ⁴ Shared with Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland ⁵ Shared with Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine ⁶ Shared with the Netherlands and Denmark ⁷ Shared with Austria and Slovakia ⁸ Shared with France, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Italy, UK

This page was last edited on 20 June 2023, at 23:39

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