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 12th century
castle, as part of the
sponheimian
legacy. A short time later, the centre of Castle Gemünden arose in its present-day
form. After being destroyed by French troops in the year 1689, it was reconstructed
between 1718 and 1724. A hundred years later, in 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.
From the main ridge of Soon Forest, the path to Gemünden leads down into the
valley passing near the ruins of Castle Koppenstein (553 m), around which
a small settlement once stood (ca. 1330). Koppenstein is numbered amongst
the oldest properties of the
Sponheim
Earls in Hunsrück. Despite its strategically favourable position at the junction
of the road that links the Nahe and the Mosel Rivers over the Soonwald main
ridge, the castle and settlement were once again abandoned by the end of the
16th Century. This was due to adverse agricultural and climatic conditions.
A further reason might have been the permanent lack of water. Yet what remains
is certainly an unparalleled view from the keep of the ruined castle over
the Hunsrück Heights.
A geological "learning path" in Gemünden leads through the 320-million-year-old,
petrified Devonian sea in Hunsrück. Fossils from prehistoric plants and animals
bear witness to a long ago past: the
Devonian
period with maritime flora and fauna from 350-405 million years ago, and the
creation of Devon-Taunus quartzite and Hunsrück slate 320 million years ago.
The main area for this is the Kaiser quarry with its beautiful view
over the little town. This slate quarry is famous for its abundance of fossils
and the extraordinarily good condition they are in. Spectacular finds of classes
of armoured fish ("Placoderms": plate-skinned), bony fish ("Osteichthyes"),
and jawless fish ("agnatha") in the 19th Century established the basis for
the fame of this quarry. The findings here have added substantially to the
list of the fauna from Hunsrück slate, and, above all, made it possible to
determine the exact age of the slate strata. In contrast, the characteristics
of today's Hunsrück surface area are much younger and are the result of tectonic
movements one million years ago, as well as weathering.
The Herrenberg slate quarry near
Bundenbach
is also a diversion worth making. It is in the area of
Rhaunen
and has a large fossil collection of Hunsrück slate from the Devonian era.
Short glossary of geological terminology.