Remich, Trier and Bernkastel

Friday June 13

Remich

We had made good time overnight and it looked that we may arrive in Remich well ahead of time allowing us to go ashore to walk around the town before leaving on our tour of Trier; however the last lock before the town was closed for some minor repairs so we lost all the time we had made up.

Remich is a commune with city status in south-eastern Luxembourg with just under 3,000 inhabitants; it is the capital of the canton of Remich and lies on the left bank of the Moselle River, which forms part of the border between Luxembourg and Germany. The commune is the smallest in Luxembourg in area.

After lunch we boarded the coaches to travel to Trier which is thought to be the oldest town in Germany founded in or before 16 BC. Trier which is called Treves in English is on the banks of the Moselle and lies in a valley within the important Mosel wine region. The closest city to Trier is the capital of Luxembourg, some 50 km to the southwest.

 The city is the oldest seat of a Christian bishop north of the Alps.  In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Trier was an important prince of the church, as the Archbishopric of Trier controlled land from the French border to the Rhine. The Archbishop also had great significance as one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

According to the legend recorded in the 12th-century Gesta Treverorum, the city was founded by an unrecorded Trebeta, an Assyrian prince, placing the city's founding legend centuries before and independently of ancient Rome: a medieval inscription on the façade of the Red House in Trier market,

ANTE ROMAM TREVIRIS STETIT ANNIS MILLE TRECENTIS.

PERSTET ET ÆTERNA PACE FRVATVR. AMEN.

"Thirteen hundred years before Rome, Trier stood / may it stand on and enjoy eternal peace, amen," reflects the proud city tradition.

In historical time, the Roman Empire subdued the Treveri in the 1st century BC and established Augusta Treverorum in 30 BC. The name is likely to be taken from the title Augustus held by the head of state at the time, Augustus Caesar. The city later became the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, as well as the Roman prefecture of Gaul.

Porta Nigra

In the 4th century AD, Trier was one of the five biggest cities in the known world with a population of about 70,000 - 80,000 or perhaps up to 100,000.  The Porta Nigra an ancient Roman gate still survives in the city. Roman Trier was the birthplace of Saint Ambrose and sometime between 395 and 418 the Roman administration moved the staff of Praetorian Prefecture from the city to Arles.

The Franks seized Trier from Roman administration in 459 CE.  In 870, it became part of Eastern Francia, which developed into the Holy Roman Empire and relics of Saint Matthias brought to the city initiated widespread pilgrimages. The bishops of the city grew increasingly powerful and the Archbishopric of Trier was recognized as an electorate of the empire, one of the most powerful states of Germany. The University of Trier was founded in the city in 1473.

In the 17th century, the Archbishops and Prince-Electors of Trier relocated their residences to Philippsburg Castle, near Koblenz. A session of the Reichstag was held in Trier in 1512, during which the demarcation of the Imperial Circles was definitively established.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Trier was sought after by France, who invaded during the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the War of the Polish Succession. France succeeded in finally claiming Trier in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars, and the electoral archbishopric was dissolved. After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Trier passed to the Kingdom of Prussia.  Karl Marx was born in the city in 1818.

As part of the Prussian Rhineland, Trier developed economically during the 19th century. The city rose in revolt during the revolutions of 1848 in the German states, although the rebels were forced to concede. It became part of the German Empire in 1871.

In June 1940 over 60,000 British prisoners of war, captured at Dunkirk and Northern France, were marched to Trier, which became a staging post for British soldiers headed for German prisoner-of-war camps. Trier was heavily bombed and bombarded in 1944 during World War II. The city became part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate after the war. The university, dissolved in 1797, was restarted in the 1970s, while the Cathedral of Trier was reopened in 1974. Trier officially celebrated its 2,000th anniversary in 1984.

The drive from Remich to Trier took a little over an hour in the coach and we drove around the town past old Roman Baths and an Amphitheatre before a five minute walk brought us to the Porta Nigra the old Roman Gate built around 1800 years ago.  Walking through the gate we found that there was an outer and inner gate which allowed the Romans to drop two gates to trap any attackers, allowing them to pour heated oil or fire arrows on those trapped.

Trier Cathedral and Parish Church

From the gate we followed the route of the old Roman road to the market square with many stalls set up selling fruit, vegetables and flowers, like many German squares it was lined with houses built 500 or more years ago.  On the way to the square we passed one house built in 1230 and originally didn’t have any doors or windows on the ground level, entrance being by ladder to the first floor , the ladder could be pulled up at night protecting the residents from intruders.

Protestant Church - Old Roman Throne Room

Following a small lane we came to another square in front of the Trier Cathedral, the early part of the cathedral was built in the 400s when the Romans adopted Christianity, next to the cathedral was a church which was rebuilt in the 1300s, having been destroyed years before by the Vikings.

Another old Roman building in town, also built in the 400s, the Palastuala or Roman Throne Room has been restored and is now used as a Protestant Church.  It is a large rectangular building with a flat timber ceiling and no decorations on the walls, just bare bricks and the size is another reminder of the skills of the Roman builders.

We had another hour to wander around the town before returning to the ship, arriving at 6:30 and immediately sailing downstream.  After dinner tonight we were entertained by a piano and violin duo and when we arrived at Trier, we docked briefly to allow them to leave the ship.

Saturday June 14

Bernkastel

The earliest evidence of human habitation (3000 BC) was discovered by archaeologists in Kues the village across the river.  About AD 370, Decimus Magnus Ausonius, the Roman poet and teacher at the Imperial court, wrote his poem Mosella.  Adalbero von Luxemburg, Provost of the Trier Monastery of St. Paulin, became Lord of Bernkastel in the early 11th century.

At the turn of the 8th century, a geographer described a place called Princastellum. This is said to be evidence of a Roman castellum in the 4th century near today’s Landshut castle ruin.

On 29 May 1291, King Rudolph I of Germany granted Berrincastel town rights. The castle, Burg Landshut, which was built at that time but was given this name only in the 16th century. In 1332, the town rights were reaffirmed by Emperor Louis the Bavarian’s Sammelprivileg (a kind of omnibus decree that dealt with many rights and privileges). Under the terms of the Golden Bull of 1356, Bohemond II became Elector and according to legend, he was brought back to health from a serious illness by a glass of wine, giving rise to the legend of the Berncastler Doctor winery.

In 1505, in an Electoral edict from Jakob II, the name Landshut for the archiepiscopal castle crops up for the first time.  Emperor Maximilian I spent a night in Bernkastel in 1512 on the way to the Imperial Diet at Trier.

The Plague raged in Bernkastel in 1627, and in Kues in 1641 and in 1692, Castle Landshut fell victim to fire and since then it has been a ruin.

From 1794 to 1814, Bernkastel was a cantonal chef-lieu under French rule, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Bernkastel and Kues were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia.

Historically, the most important branch of industry has been winegrowing. Within the Bernkastel area, vines are worked overwhelmingly in steep-slope vineyards in an area of 5,844 ha.  A famous wine is the Bernkasteler Doctor, Its name traces back to a legend of the 14th century that the Archbishop Boemund II was getting over a severe illness by drinking a wine from this vineyard, then stating: "This wine is the true Doctor".  This small vineyard still exists today and is one of the most valuable vineyards on the Moselle and still produced the “Bernkasteler Doctor” wine but only around 10,000 bottles a year.

We arrived in Bernkastel before 7:00 am and after breakfast left the ship for a walking tour of the town, passing on the way into the town a pair of swans with their cygnets and a pair of native geese with their goslings sitting on the river bank.  The Moselle River, like the Rhine and Danube, has hundreds of pairs a swans along with ducks and geese occupying its waters.

Half Timbered Houses in Town Square

Bernkastel today, located in the middle of the Moselle wine-producing region. This charming town is overlooked by the ruins of Castle Landshut, and boasts over 500 years of wine history. During WW II only one bomb fell on the town so it still has its medieval marketplace, half-timbered homes and beautiful town squares with fountains dating back centuries.  We started our walk at the medieval watch tower built from slate, this has been incorporated with the baroque church, St Michaels as its bell tower.

Narrowest House in Bernkastel

Every little lane we walked along revealed more beautiful half-timbered houses, some with their second floor extending well past the ground floor; this is a result of houses being taxed on the amount of land they occupied so they could build large second and third floors without increasing their tax.  Several squares also contained fountains and a large bronze one near the river was decorated with the figure of the Archbishop receiving the “Doctor Wine”.

After walking around the town for around an hour and a half we were taken to a wine cellar where we had the opportunity to sample several of the different style of Mosel wine, from semi-dry to sweet.

Today the weather has deteriorated and is probably 10 degrees or more cooler than the last three, so even though we had some “anti-freeze” inside we decided to return to the ship to warm up and sailed just after lunch.

Moselle Vineyards

The Moselle River’s south facing steep sides are lined with vineyards and are so steep that the owners can’t use machinery, so all the work is done on by hand.  The soil contains a lot of slate and rather than remove it, it is spread over the surface around the vines so during the day it warms up and night it releases its heat which helps improve the environment for the vines.

Another difference between the Moselle and the Rhine and Danube, is that the Moselle snakes around between the hills with many 180 degree bends and in the space of a few kilometres changes direction several times and every kilometre or less is another small village, a more interesting river to travel along.