Bacharach Germany Rhineland-Palatinate
Frequently Asked Questions
Right beside the old town, on the Rhine. Bacharach occupies one of the narrowest stretches of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape. Everything is done on foot from the riverbank.
Walk the main street end to end, come back through the parallel lanes, climb to Stahleck castle by way of the Werner chapel and the town walls, then descend through the vineyards. Add a stop in a wine tavern: the whole thing fits into four hours.
Twenty to thirty minutes uphill from Saint Peter's church. The panorama repays the effort generously: the bend of the Rhine, the terraced vineyard slopes, the villages on the far bank and the constant procession of barges on the river.
Not as a museum. This 12th-century fortress, rebuilt in the 20th century after French destruction, now houses a youth hostel. Its courtyard and surroundings remain open to walkers, and it is the view that draws people up.
A Gothic chapel begun in 1289 of which only a lacework of reddish stone remains, open to the sky. Destroyed in 1689 by French troops and never rebuilt, it has been carefully stabilised, and its empty arches now frame the view of the river. It is one of the most moving monuments in the valley.
Yes. On the way up to the castle the path joins the medieval walls, which you follow from tower to tower; several still have their pointed roofs and wooden stairs. At each landing the valley opens a little wider below.
Because it grew up around the wine trade more than nine hundred years ago. Riesling has ruled here since the Middle Ages, when barrels left by boat for Cologne and Flanders. The wrought-iron tavern signs are a reminder that the trade never stopped.
In a courtyard or a wine tavern in the old town. Growers serve their bottlings by the glass, often with country bread and cheese. That moment is as much part of the call as the town walls.
No, and that is its strength. Everything happens within a few hundred metres: nothing is monumental, everything is on a human scale. Step a few metres off the main street and all you hear are swifts above the rooftops.
The euro. Keep cash: in a village this size not every family cellar or small tavern takes cards, and ATMs are scarce.
