Cochem

Thursday June 12

Cochem

As early as Celtic and Roman times, Cochem was settled. In 886, it was first mentioned as Villa cuchema. Other names yielded by history are Cuhckeme and Chuckeme in 893, Cochemo in 1051, Chuchumo in 1056, Kuchema in 1130, Cuchemo in 1136, Cocheme in 1144, then Cuchme, and into the 18th century Cochheim or Cocheim.

Reichsburg Castle

Cochem was an Imperial estate and was pledged by King Adolf of Nassau in 1294 to the Archbishopric of Trier and remained Electoral-Trier territory until the French occupation began in 1794.  In 1332, Cochem was granted town rights, and shortly thereafter, the town fortifications, which still stand today, were built. Between 1423 and 1425, the town was stricken with a Plague epidemic. In 1623, Elector Lothar von Metternich brought about the founding of a Capuchin monastery. In the Thirty Years' War, the town was besieged, but not conquered. In 1689, King Louis XIV's troops first burnt the Winneburg (castle) down and then conquered the town of Cochem with its castle. Beginning in 1794, Cochem lay under French rule and in 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna.

Louis Fréderic Jacques Ravené bought the ruin of the former Imperial castle in 1866 and began its reconstruction.  Only after a bridge was built across the Moselle at Cochem in 1927 were the two fishing villages of Cond and Sehl amalgamated with the town in the course of administrative reform in 1932. This bridge, called the "Skagerrak Bridge", was dedicated on 23 January 1927. In the Second World War, great parts of Cochem's old town were destroyed.  Also during the war, the operations staff of the underground subcamp of Zeisig of the Natzweiler concentration camp between the villages of Bruttig and Treis was located here, at its height, 13,000 people were imprisoned and they provided slave labour for Bosch, which made spark plugs, ignition systems and glow plugs, which were important to the German war effort.

Moselle River from Castle

Old houses near Town Square

After breakfast we boarded mini buses to be taken to Reichsburg Castle which overlooks the town as the road isn’t wide enough for coaches.  The first castle was constructed over 1000 years ago and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.  In the 1800s it was only a shell and a Berlin merchant purchased it to use as a summer getaway and spent, in today’s terms, 43 million euros to restore it, every room has a different style ceiling, some rooms have oak panelling with figures or scenes carved on them and other rooms have been painted so that the walls appear to have been covered with elaborate wallpaper.  Today the castle is owned by the town and with tourism and hiring for functions it pays its way.

Ann found a new friend

From the castle we returned to the town and walked around the old section, some of the lanes being too small for cars to drive along so we were able to admire the buildings without worrying about traffic.  The lanes eventually led into the old market square, very small compared to some towns we have visited, in the middle of the square was a fountain with St Michael on horseback and as expected the old town hall occupied one side.  We finished the tour at an old town gate with a small prison above and then wandered off on our own.

We remembered from our last visit that there was a chair lift going up to one of the highest hills surrounding the town, so we walked under the rail bridge and could see at its end the entrance to the King Wilhelm rail tunnel which runs for over 4 km through the mountain before arriving at the chair lift station.  A 10 minute ride brought us to the top and after a short walk arrived at a point of the hill that provided a wonderful view of the town and up and downstream of the Moselle River.

Returning to the town we walked back, over the stone bridge, to the ship and while we were eating lunch set sail to travel further up the Moselle.

Travelling along the river in every village we past there were dozens of motor homes lining the river bank and in some many caravans and the way they were set up looked as if they were there for the summer.  We were told that most of the motor homes were from the Netherlands and we suspect if they were all on the road at the same time there would be a traffic jam all the way to Amsterdam.