Rhine-Romantic Route

It is where the river and its tributaries, interspersed with steep vineyards and overgrown medieval castles, pass through the forests of the Volcanic Eifel and the Siebengebirge, Westerwald, Hunsrück, Taunus and Rheingau regions that the inspiration arose for the great artistic works culminating in the music of Richard Wagner, the literature of Clemens Brentanos, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine and Karl Simrock, the paintings of William Turner and many architectural monuments, fortresses and castles.

It was at the start of the nineteenth century that writers and artists discovered the wild and romantic Rhine Valley that immediately captivated their imagination as a landscape blessed like no other with legends and tales. The sentiment triggered within them by all this spurred their creativity and inspired them to produce works that reflect these intensive feelings. It is for this reason that the Middle Rhine is also considered the source of German romanticism. The Rhine romantics thereby prompted a flood of tourism that continues to prevail to this day.

The first tourists, among them many Englishmen, already started flocking to the Rhine in the early nineteenth century – many of them by ship. The first liner, the "Concordia", linked Cologne and Mainz in 1827. Karl Baedeker opened a publishing firm in Coblenz in the same year and later published the first Baedeker travel guide entitled Rheinreise von Mainz bis Cöln, Handbuch für Schnellreisende (A Rhine Journey from Mainz to Cologne: A Handbook for Travellers on the Move). Since then the Köln-Düsseldorfer(KD for short) has also been providing entertaining excursions to the ‘legendary’ landscapes, places and sites between Cologne and Mainz.

In June 2013, the interactive Romanticum exhibition experience was opened in the Forum Confluentes culture centre in Coblenztogether with Coblenz Tourist Board, the Middle Rhine Museum and Coblenz municipal library. The exhibition presents the landscape of the Upper Middle Rhine UNESCO World Heritage Site and tells the story of Rhine romanticism.

This important and eventful period of German history to which numerous famous works of architecture, literature and music owe their legacy brings the "Rhine Romantic Route" to life – by car, ship, on foot or by bike.

 

The Rhine Romanticism Route brings to life:
> the stunning landscapes, romantic places and outstanding sights – at the many castles dotting the slopes to the left and right of the Middle Rhine Valley;
> the traces of the past with its renowned works of architecture, literature, music and painting;
> the scenes of world-famous legends, tales and historic events that established the myth of "Rhine romanticism".

Subject matter: Rhine romanticism, culture, history, literature
Type of route: car, camper van, hiking trail, cycle path, KD liners
Length of route: 360 km
Start/end: Cologne / Mainz and Wiesbaden
Regions: Cologne/Bonn region, Romantic Rhine, Valley of the Loreley / Upper Middle Rhine UNESCO World Heritage Site, Rheingau

 

[>> more informationen about the region "Romantic Rhine"]