Bacharach Germany: A guide to this enchanting village

The word ‘picturesque’ could have been invented for Bacharach – it’s the prettiest village on the Rhine and one of the most beautiful villages in Europe.

For us, it’s the Romantic Rhine in a nutshell – medieval half-timbered houses everywhere we looked, steep vineyards rising above the river, formidable town wall towers and a romantic castle in the forest above the town.

The village is named after the wine god Bacchus, and you can sample its famous Riesling at several wineries and bars around Bacharach.

Bacharach Germany has many wonderful places to stay, from atmospheric medieval hotels to a youth hostel in a Castle on a hillside overlooking the Rhine.

If you love the timber-framed houses for which Germany is famous, then Bacharach is one of the best places to visit in Germany for you.

Its streets are crammed with centuries-old crooked, leaning houses and buildings, and one of our favourite things to do in Bacharach is taking a ramble through the rickety backstreets seeking out more and more of these architectural treasures.

The Altes Haus is one of the most famous buildings in the Rhine Valley. Built in 1586, this picturesque gem on the Markt (Market Square) is one of the few half-timbered houses to survive the various fires and accidents to have affected Bacharach down the centuries.

It’s one of numerous Bacharach restaurants, and they serve all the traditional classics including Hunsruck schnitzel. They also serve excellent Riesling from a vineyard in the village. It’s also worth a stop to see the cycle of paintings including the Loreley, which are over a century old.

The Bacharach town walls are seriously impressive, its towers a reminder of its trading heyday centuries ago when it had three times the population it has now. Bacharach was wealthy, and had to be protected.

You can walk around then walls, which vary in difficulty from the flat section parallel to the railway and river, to the hilly section around Burg Stahleck. I didn’t do the full circuit as I had my family with me, but the sections I did were hugely rewarding. One for next time!

You can enjoy the classic view of Bacharach, with the tower of St Peter’s Church taking centre stage and the dramatic river valley behind, from the Postenturm (Post Tower) in the vineyards above Bacharach.

The Postenturm has three levels accessible by stairs, and the views from the second and third stages are outstanding.  If the weather is favourable and the sun is shining, head there for around 6pm in the summer.

The Malerwinkel – Artists Quarter – is a surprisingly quiet part of Bacharach, a backstreet (Burg Weg) lined with half-timbered houses leading to the Steeger Tor, one of the ten gates to Bacharach.

It’s a stunning corner of Bacharach, with amazing views of the houses and flower-filled gardens, and of the town wall towers and Burg Stahleck Castle on the hilltop.

You can also stay in one of the most beautiful buildings in the Quarter, the Pension Im Malerwinkel.  

The Peterskirche, built between the late 11^th and 13^th centuries, is one of the most prominent Bacharach landmarks, and is well worth a brief visit.

It’s an intriguing mixture of late Romanesque and early Gothic elements, and one of the most striking features I found was the painted head pillar capitals throughout the church.  

The Altkölnischer Hof is next door to the Altes Haus and is a spectacular half-timbered building with its outdoor galleries overlooking the Markt.

In summer (when we visited) they had many tables outdoors, in a great position sheltered from the hot afternoon sun.  They serve a good selection of German (and Rhineland) classics including sauerbraten, schnitzels and pike-perch fillet.

The Wernerkapelle is a ruined Gothic chapel mostly built during the 14^th century, commemorating a local boy who was murdered. Local Jews were blamed for this, leading to riots and the deaths of around 40 people.

The elaborate reddish sandstone Gothic chapel was built on the site of an earlier chapel, dedicated to St Cunibert, where  Werner was buried. It became a pilgrimage site, but was destroyed, like many buildings on the left bank of the Rhine, by the forces of French King Louis XIV during the Palatine Wars of Succession in 1689.

The Bacharach castle, Burg Stahleck, is home to one of the flagship youth hostels in Germany. I took a walk up through the woods to the Castle, and it’s a remarkable place to stay.

It was founded during the 12^th century, and like the Wernerkapelle destroyed by the French in 1689. It was rebuilt in the 1920s as a youth hostel, then taken over by the Nazis for a few years as the venue for indoctrination camps.

Burg Stahleck can be visited, but as most of it is taken up with accommodation, no tours are possible. You can sit in the large courtyard of the castle, which opens out onto a balcony offering superb views of the Rhine towards Lorch, Niederheimbach and Trechtingshausen.  Buy a drink and savour the view for half an hour.

If you wish to stay in Burg Stahleck, book well in advance as it is VERY popular.

The riverside park is a pleasant spot for a half-hour break with great views along the river in either direction. There is also a small sculpture commemorating the Rhine’s literary heritage. It’s a boat with figures representing Clemens Brentano (who first wrote about the Loreley legend), Heinrich Heine (who popularized the legend in his Die Loreley poem in 1824) and Victor Hugo, who visited Bacharach twice.

Hugo loved Bacharach. He described it as, ‘one of the most beautiful, most pleasant and least known old towns in the world.’  I’m not sure about ‘least known’ nowadays, but he wasn’t too far away with the rest of his description!

The Rhine Valley is a brilliant place to cycle as there is a variety of terrain to suit everyone, and the sightseeing and scenery are stupendous.

The dedicated cycle paths run alongside the river,  and you get outstanding views all the way along. It’s an easy way to see some of the Rhine river castles, especially the ones that are some distance from train or bus stops.

The riverside paths are also pancake-flat, but if you want something more challenging, with many routes into the hills and ‘hinterland’ of the river.

Bacharach is in the land (state) of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) which extends to Trier and the western border of Germany.

It’s on the left bank (west side) of the River Rhine, in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site, also often referred to as the Rhine Gorge.

It is 114 km (71 miles) south-east of Cologne, 35 km (22 miles) north-west of Mainz and 64 km (40 miles) from Frankfurt-am-Main.   

Bacharach is on the Koblenz to Bingen and Mainz train line which runs along the west side of the Rhine Valley. Two trains an hour in each direction stop there – the RE2 service takes 33 minutes to Koblenz, and the slightly slower regional RB26 service stops takes 37 minutes

For train times check the Deutsche Bahn website.

TIP: The RB 26 calls at all stations, and the RE2 doesn’t – it misses smaller stops like Boppard (Bad Salzig) and St Goar.

If you’re driving, Bacharach Germany is on the B9 road that runs alongside the river from Koblenz to Bingen.  The A61 autobahn (motorway) also passes nearby.

If you’re travelling from the opposite side of the river, the nearest ferry runs from Kaub to Engelsburg, two miles (3 km) north of Bacharach. This is easy if you’re driving, but not as convenient if you’re a foot passenger.

If you’re flying long haul to Germany, Frankfurt is your best arrival point, with Cologne-Bonn a good alternative. Otherwise budget carriers including Ryanair and Wizzair use Frankfurt Hahn airport which is near Traben-Trarbach in the Mosel Valley.

TIP: If you’re not driving, take the bus from Frankfurt-Hahn to Bingen (final destination Mainz) and catch a train from there to Bacharach.

TOUR: It’s possible to visit two of the best Rhine towns, Bacharach and Rüdesheim, on this private day tour from Frankfurt.

Where To Stay In Bacharach

Most of the hotels in Bacharach are in the 3-star bracket, and many of them are housed in late medieval half-timbered houses, making it a wonderfully atmospheric place to stay.  Here’s a selection of the best places to stay in Bacharach:

**** – Hotel Pension Winzerhaus – great guesthouse just outside the historic town walls. Superb views of the countryside

*** – Altkölnischer Hof – famous Bacharach hotel in one of the most beautiful buildings in the town, on the main square with a restaurant

*** – Hotel am Markt Bacharach – popular family-run hotel on the market square, in one of the best locations in Bacharach  

*** – Hotel zur Post – classic Rhineland hotel, full of old world charm, on the main street through the town

Bacharach Germany is near the southern end of the Rhine Gorge, closer to Rüdesheim and Bingen (13 km, 8 miles) away. 

If you’re not driving, you can get to some of the best Rhine castles by train, including Reichenstein Castle and Rheinstein Castle, to the south of the village of Trechtingshausen.

Closer still, the medieval ruin of Fürstenberg Castle stands above the village of Rheindiebach, but there’s no access to the ruins.

Rüdesheim is probably the most famous of the Rhine river towns, best-known for the Drosselgasse an arrow street filled with wineries and restaurants. It’s also rich in traditional German architecture, with many half-timbered buildings including the stunning Brömserhof.

You can also catch a cable car up the hill, passing above vineyards until you reach the Niederwald Monument, one of the most famous landmarks in Germany, which commemorates the Unification of Germany.

If you head downriver, you reach one of the most iconic Rhine river castles after 3km (2 miles) along the road to Oberwesel. Pfalzgrafenstein Castle is a wonderful sight, a white castle with black Baroque turrets on an island in the river.

It functioned as a toll castle, collecting tolls from passing boats in conjunction with the town of Kaub and nearby Gutenfels Castle.

Oberwesel is one of the best towns on the Rhine to visit, with some fine medieval buildings, some great wineries and two outstanding churches, one of which is across the street from the station.

Further downstream, the Loreley cliff is the location of the legend of the betrayed maiden who threw herself to her death, later returning as a siren luring sailors to their deaths.

It’s very close to St Goar and St Goarshausen, twin towns facing each other across the Rhine and linked by one of five ferries along the Rhine Gorge.

Each of these has a famous Rhine castle – the privately-owned Burg Katz overlooks St Goarshausen while Rheinfels Castle presides over St Goar and the next two miles of the Rhine, as far as Burg Maus (Mouse Castle).

The next major Rhine river town is Boppard,  an enchanting ensemble of old houses, a splendid Rhenish church, Roman ruins and a great chairlift to superb views over a bend in the Rhine river.

Finally, don’t miss Marksburg Castle, a formidable fortress that survived the Middle Ages unscathed, and the beautiful village of Braubach below.

David Angel is a British photographer, writer and historian. He is a European travel expert with over 30 years’ experience exploring Europe. He has a degree in History from Manchester University, and his work is regularly featured in global media including the BBC, Condé Nast Traveler, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sunday Times.  David is fluent in French and Welsh, and can also converse in Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech and Polish.

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