Bingen at the mouth of the Nahe in the Rhine

The city of Bingen, at the junction of the Rhine and the Nahe, came into being as a strategically important Roman garrison on the Roman road "Via Ausonia" which led from Mainz to Trier. The city is situated there where the road rose up into the Hunsrück. It was at this place on the northern banks of the Nahe, that the Benedictine Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) founded her cloister upon the grave of the holy Rupertus. It is remarkable to note that in her "Physica", Hildegard von Bingen includes more than 250 plants and many folk remedies and "natural" medicinal methods of treatment.

On a distinct hill in the midst of the city lies the medieval Klopp castle offering a beautiful outlook over the mouth of the Nahe in the Rhine. Klopp castle with its historic museum, together with the Mäuseturm ("Mice Tower"), at the narrows of the Rhine (the "loch" of Bingen) and the late gothic Basilica of St. Martin (first recorded in 793) represent the landmarks of the city. The rapids at the loch of Bingen were caused by several quartzite barriers into which, with the emergence of steam boat travel, a wider channel was blasted 150 years ago. A stone bridge, the "Drusus bridge" from the 11th century spans the Nahe and connects Bingen and Bingerbrück. The Rochus chapel is worth a visit. It was donated in the year 1666 as a plague chapel. The Rochus festival, honors the saint who, according legend, caught the plague himself while caring for others with the disease. Goethe wrote an essay about this.