Gemünden in the Hunsrück

When a hiker comes from Bad Sobernheim through the Entenpfuhl State Forest, passes by Trifthütte (a pasture hut and restaurant) and Alteburg Mountain, and arrives at the main ridge of the Soon forest, they are suddenly met with a breathtaking view over the Hunsrück plateau and down into the Simmerbach valley. In the valley below lies the little town of Gemünden with its numerous 17th and 18th Century half-timbered houses, which are worth seeing. A four-turreted castle towers above Gemünden, standing high above the houses on a rocky plateau. The four mighty turrets with their bulbous spires give the Baroque castle quite a distinctive and unique character. With good reason, Gemünden is called "the pearl of Hunsrück", with a city charter that dates from 1330. Between 1514 and 1540, the Lords of Schmidtburg Castle near Bundenbach in Hahnenbach Valley purchased the entire town, including its castle from the 12th Century, as part of the Sponheim legacy. A short time later, the center of Castle Gemünden arose in its present-day form. After being destroyed by French troops in the year 1689, its reconstruction took place between 1718 and 1724. A hundred years later, in the year 1815, the castle came into the possession of the baronial family of Salis-Soglio through the marriage of the last heir to Captain Anton von Salis-Soglio from the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.