welcoming boy - showing us what the little town of nierstein is most known for: its excellent wines.
in the region of rhenish hesse in the state of rhineland-palatinate, right next to the river rhine, sits a former imperial village ( now city ) with a rich history of winemaking. nierstein is beautifully embedded into the little flügelsbach valley, which discharges into the rhine, surrounded by some of the oldest vinyards in germany and surprises with geographical singularities like a rock formation that captivates with an intense red colouration, and of course its absolutely gorgeous views over the rhine valley.
i haven't been visiting a lot of places in rhenish hesse yet, so it keeps surprising me again and again, with its charming small towns and their obvious dedication to winemaking. rhenish hesse is the biggest wine terroir in germany, and it's apparent in every corner and every crevice you encounter. there's no place inside this region that is not traditionally part of the wine production, the whole craft is permeating the life of people living here. since it is also a very lucrative craft, it is no wonder that you'll come upon wine-growing estates everywhere, many of them operating since centuries, showcasing wealth and luxury.
nierstein is said to have been a roman settlement 2000 years ago ( called bauconica nova ), but after the disintegration of the roman empire, the franconians resettled the place and called it 'narinstaine' - an early document from around 742 mentions a donation of a basilica in the village of nierstein ( likely the mountain church of st. kilian's up on the glöck hill ). it was officially acknowledged as a town in 1196, but before that it already was used as a franconian king's court, which brought many kings of that dynasty to the town. the court is believed to have been situated at the same spot as the church of st. martin - right next to today's market sqare.
as you can see, the roots of this town are certainly reaching far back!
so let me take you on a little walk around and through nierstein, maybe you'll like it as much as i did on our walk back then!
a very stately estate is the dalberg-herding castle, a 19th century palace built for a dame called ursula von herding. she built it on a property that once belonged to the medieval barons of dalberg. i found it very peculiar to learn that apparently, the consignor of this luxurious building never even visited the place. she preferred to stay in mannheim, where she originated from. inside the palace is a chapel that was painted by jakob götzenberger, the paintings are very delicate and brightly coloured, due to a special technique he used ( see some images here ).
the estate has recently been turned into an appartment complex, after it had been owned by a brewery and malt factory for a long time. the buildings of that factory were torn down in 2012, which paved the way toward the construction of premium housing units.
this path leads onto the supposedly oldest vinyard hill of germany 'glöck', which is encompassed by enclosure walls. the name glöck derives from the german word 'glocke', which is in fact a bell. nobody really is sure why they called it this way, but it's very probable that the nearby church of st. kilian is the reason behind the nomenclature. the catholic church sits directly on top of the hill and with the tolling of its bells likely gave the vinyard its name.
the view down towards the town from the hill, the rhine river is in the back.
it was a very rainy morning, we had a few showers coming down on us ( i visited the town together with my parents ). but despite that, the bad weather did not deter us from continuing to explore.
the church tower on the right side of the image is that of the evangelical martinskirche. as mentioned before, this church sits on the site of the original king's court, and is still surrounded by defensive walls that probably were part of the former court. since nierstein never had city walls, this fortified church was a safe haven for the village people when danger approached.
instead of entering the property of st. kilian's church, we decided to pass it by without having a more detailed look at the architecture. st. kilian wasn't always called this way, back when the franconian people were controlling this area it was dedicated to st. mary and supposedly a basilica. the mention in the document of 742 likely refers to this church, which still has a romanesque bell tower from the 12th century that was transformed into a baroque-looking onion dome during a reconstruction in 1773.
a nice little look-out spot with views on the rhine river which is flowing downstream here into the direction of mainz.
always in favour of some good snowdrop content ;)
the view was very breathtaking, and the approaching rainy weather front made it even more spectacular. the formation on the left side of the image is what i mentioned in the beginning of this post, a hillside caller 'roter hang'. the 'slope' got its name from the colour of the rocks emerging out of the ground and the soil that can be found there as well - it is a bright earthy shade of red. the whole formation spans about 5 kilometers and developed over 280 million years ago until at the end of the tertiary the whole slab was heaved onto the surface during a tectonic shift. it is said that the slopes of the roter hang provide perfect conditions for rich mineral wines, especially the riesling wines are said to be very aromatic and delicate. the orientation of the slopes towards the rhine river is also very beneficial to the wine, because the reflection of sunlight from the water back to the rock formations serves as an additional heat source, which is well stored in the rocks and soil. the rock itself is another repository for warmth, it's made out of claystones and sandstones, which are perfect for heat storage. and as we know, when a climate is warm, wine is growing much, much better than in colder climates.
close-up of the rain front coming for us.
a look back towards the little onion dome of st. kilian's.
loved the rainclouds accumulating behind the church, it looked so dramatic!
as the rain started to fall, i was captured and fascinated by the drops watering off some little willow catkins 😮 nature magic!
😍
marvelling at the rotliegend rock ( this is the offical term for the rock of the roter hang ). also absolutely adored the mossy twigs and branches of the plant growth and how it was able to prosper and thrive on such scraggy soil!
by the way, the colour of the rock comes from embedded iron compounds, namely hematites. characteristically the rotliegend is comparable to schist, which shows in the way how the rock is folded.
i remember having flushed a deer right at this spot, it stood on top of the plateau above. on the right you can actually make out an animal trail, and i wondered if this path was maybe used regularly by deers.
big roots growing out of the rock.
it was so cool to see and touch the patent rock and get amazed over the resilience power of plant growth in such an environment.
can you see animal faces, too, on these roots? i feel like it had at least two faces. that of a pig and that of a cow. 😅
after a while we approached a medieval watchtower ( origins dating back to the 12th century ) - it was built to send signals between landskron castle in oppenheim and schwabsburg castle in nierstein. of course back then they used fire baskets to transmit messages such as possible attacks from aggressive foes, or news about fires and whatever was important to know between these two towns.
the tower is not a very tall one, with only 10,2 meters of height, it's actually rather small. but the plateau on top of the roter hang, on which the tower stands on, offers a grandiose view into all kinds of directions, and when the tower is open and you're be able to climb up, it is said to have views all over the rhine-main valley ( including wiesbaden & mainz ), to several mountain ranges such as the taunus & odenwald and even towards the singular mountain of the donnersberg.
in the year 2000 a club was founded to renovate the tower, which had started to deteriorate quite a bit after so many centuries. they planted little almond trees and put up some seating areas as well, and made this place a perfect spot to rest after a hike through the vinyard mountains.
i kinda loved the fact that my parents were ascending the hill in a symmetrical way, therefore was quick to capture the coincidence ❤. the cross and altar stone you can see here look rather old, but i am not sure if they have originally been found on site or if they have been put up by the club to pimp up the whole terrain. maybe as some sort of option to hold religious ceremonies up here?
i don't know if you can see it, but the almond trees were blooming beautifully that day, too and really gave the place even more of a magic atmosphere.
i liked the idea of a ritualistic place of worship, but rather would like to see it more as a pagan thing 😅
the almond tree blooms.
couldn't decide which blossom picture i liked best ;)
i think this pathway would eventually lead to schwabsburg castle, but we did not proceed any further and instead went back to the city's core to explore it some more.
back in town we passed by the old defense walls surrounding st. martin's church, relicts of the royal palace from the 8th century. i kinda wish i had made the few steps towards the round tower and shot some more pictures from up front, but it seems that i somehow didn't think it was a good idea 😅
well, at least i zoomed in a little 😂
st. martin's was first mentioned in 1190, but it's possible that it was built much earlier. its current appearance stems from reconstructions made from 1782 to 1787 and in 1895/96, the oldest part of the church is the bell tower, which, at its core, is still romanesque. another interesting detail to mention is the fact that secret passageways existed in town, connecting several houses to the church ( namely the seats of the noblemen ). they were built to guide citizens into the safety behind the defense walls in cases of immediate danger. today, many of these passageways were filled up, but some of the old buildings inside the city core still have access to parts of the system ( as seen here - found underneath the court of the metternichhof - watch the video! ).
cute little dwelling from the 17th century ( 1620 ), directly built against the old defense walls. there's a wine restaurant inside the building called civitas, which looks really cozy.
the market square of nierstein is an absolutely gorgeous example of german city core architecture. behind the restaurant civitas you can see another mentionable building, the protestant rectory. the column in the front is a memorial for dead soldiers of the franco-prussian war.
more beautiful old houses, many of them former noble courts, are surrounding the market square. the cute little house with the white facade up front is said to be about 300 years old, inside you can find a cute cafe 'erni & illi', which, as i have learned recently after another visit to nierstein, is heavily frequented on sunny weekend days ;P the taller house behind was once the official seat of the local bailiff, today it belongs to the vintner family klein, who is operating a wine tavern inside the over 350 year old building.
space-defining of the market square are these three buildings, from left to right: noble court knebel (1664), another noble court ( the oldest half-timbered house in nierstein! ) that once had belonged to the line of hundt von saulheim (1591) and the old town hall (1838), which is now a paleontological museum. the first two are offering even more gastronomic options, inside court knebel you can find MP5 - a bistro and cafe - and in the hundt von saulheim court you can find a restaurant that specializes in international cuisine and burgers - plan b.
we checked out the menus of the restaurant, but ultimately decided against having lunch there and try our luck in a small italian restaurant further away. my parents have a rather simple taste when it comes to culinary delights, so the extravagant and more modern cuisines you can find in these restaurants didn't really apply to their vision of a proper lunch 😅 
the former town hall had some interesting constructional details like this brutalist window/gate filling! totally adored it 😍 the creator was alois plum, who installed it in 1973. he's usually known to create glass windows for sacral architecture, but it seems that he also did a lot of various design work for profane structures ( check out some of his gorgeous work here ). this window probably also references an old version of the market square fountain, which looks quite different today.
this little fella graces the paleontological museum aka the old town hall.
some buildings in nierstein were built with quarrystones. i love the visual nature of it, it is such a strong look! 😍 the building in the back is another one of that nature, a court building from 1879.
snowdrops in the frontyard.
a really stunning italian villa-style mansion is the mathildenhof, which existed for a lot longer than its current appearance suggests ( first mentioned in 1574! ). what you are seeing now stems from a reconstruction in 1862 by carl vetter for the lauteren family, a well-known wine merchant family from mainz. this villa is an absolute eye-catcher from all sides, it also features a park that was designed by the famous garden architect heinrich siesmayer ( he created the palmengarten in frankfurt ). there is a foundation that has plans to restore the park to its former glory, as several extensions and the use of the garden as a testing facility for viniculture changed it immensely since its construction. the access to this garden has recently been restricted due to vandalism, which is why it is very difficult now to see the garden side of the mansion ( which is basically the most ornamental side of the property ). i wish i had overcome my anxiety of possibly unlawfully entering the property back then, the gates were wide open and inviting, and i am pretty sure that was purposeful. on a recent trip to nierstein the gates were closed and you could not enter the mansion from any side, the garden side was fenced off, too, a result from the aforementioned vandalism. it's really a dreamy building, and i would love to take some more photos of it at some point.
it is unclear to me to whom these coats of arms belong to that were attached to this part of the mansion. i am guessing that it is a relict of the baroque era though.
a surprising find amidst all the centuries old buildings: a kindergarten building from 1904 with art nouveau elements ( architect: christian hofmeister ).
i really love the beautiful lettering! the first 'kindergarten' in nierstein was opened over 160 years ago, during a time when the industrialisation gained traction more and more and parents went to work, while the children were often left unattended. back then the opening of such an institution would lie in the responsibility of the churches, they opened up so-called childcare institutions that had not a lot to do with what we understand now about childcare. they were more like orphanages and their purpose was to lead the children to god and learn from him, which i would describe as not an ideal thing to do to a child, especially not with the means that were used back then - baton & punishment. anyway, i could dive deeper into religion not being ideal as a raising component for children in general, but as a person who decided against having children, i probably shouldn't go into that snakepit 😂
some strange sculptural installation in front of the sironasaal - a venue that belongs to the best western hotel in town. i could not find any info on this structure, and quite frankly, i don't even have a speculation on what it might symbolize 😂
a random beautiful entrance. in summer it must be wonderful to walk underneath the green trellis!
our path led us down to the rhine river, now appearing much friendlier than before, as the sun finally rewarded us with some much needed sunshine! it's always a treat to sit by this massive river and enjoy the views.
along the rhine banks there are several landing stages for ships, boats and even a ferry ( which you can see in the back, crossing the river towards kornsand - a tiny domicile near the city of trebur ). the boat in the front is a pusher tug called paula strack, which seems to have been turned into a venue for the public or a local club?
i don't know about you, but i could totally envision living in an old boat like this 😍 sometimes you see these unused ships and boats docking along shores everywhere and some of them have been turned into actual living spaces. to always have a view onto a body of water throughout the day, isn't that such a good image?
i am closing this trip to nierstein with some photos of spring blossoms and the insight that rhenish hesse is worth visiting and definitely should be on my list of future regions to explore further. this landscape near my home of wiesbaden probably has even more surprises waiting for me to fall in love with, not just only a vast amount of vinyard hills, but also more old tiny towns, extraordinary landscapes and views galore onto germany's most beloved river!
❤
Comments