Bad Münster am Stein
No photograph album or calendar of the Nahe is complete without a picture
of the Rheingrafenstein. What other landscape can offer a symbol comparable
to the Rheingrafenstein at Bad Muenster am Stein? At this rocky narrow the
Nahe has dug a deep opening in the massif to reach the wide plane of the Kreuznach
Basin. In Celtic times the ring wall structure "auf der Gans" was directly
behind the Rheingrafenstein and in medieval times the fortress Rheingrafenstein
directly overlooked the much lower Ebernburg (the famous "Hostel of Justice"),
less than 1km away. Rheingrafenstein's bubbling salt-water springs were already
used as a "Badebronnen" (bathing springs) before the year 1500, long before
the little city developed into a world famous spa. Before that, the saltwater
was a source of cooking salt, the extraction of which was carried out in several
steps. Although the water tastes very salty when it emerges from the spring,
it actually contains only 1.3 percent of salt and this was too little for
direct extraction. The water was therefore pumped several times through a
"graduation house" where it trickled down the layered spiny walls. Each time
it passed through this process, a little of it evaporated and the amount of
salt increased. When a salt content of between 15 and 20 percent was attained,
it was put into extraction pans and boiled until the salt crystals were deposited
on the bottom.
The area around Bad Muenster am Stein is also interesting from a geological
perspective: 35 million years ago in the
Oligocene
period, the Rheingrafenstein and the
Rotenfels
were the highest hills of an archipelago not far from the shore. Its
subtropical coastline
ran along the bay of Kreuznach. A few kilometres up the Nahe near Oberhausen,
the Lemberg mountain formed a peninsula belonging to the mainland. Between
Rheingrafenstein and Lemberg, was the shallow saltwater bay of Feilbingert.
Today, this area is a large nature reserve, with 100,000 hectares of land.
Similar to the
Hellberg
near Kirn, the Lemberg was formed 285 million years ago in the
Permian
period as an immense intrusion block. This
intrusion block
was exposed to the weather over the ensuing millions of years and exists today
as a so-called monadnock. Its hard stone is composed of dacite, which is somewhat
darker than the rhyolite of the Rheingrafenstein and is very slowly deteriorating
into a huge mass of scree.
The special microclimate of the Lemberg —warm with low precipitation— allows
southern European vegetation to thrive. Among the rare plants are Mountain herb,
Gold varnish, Rock cinquefoil, Wall pepper species, Rock maple, Blood red cranesbill,
Alpine herb,
Diptam,
Florentine, Hawkweed and Grasnelke. On the steep north side, the
flora shows its most beautiful side with unique mosses, lichen and orchids.
When the weather is clear, there is an incomparable view down into the Nahe
valley with Böckelheim castle (first recorded in the year 824) and the
Disibodenberg.
Large areas of the Hunsrück can also be seen, as far as the
Erbeskopf.