Boppard

- Boppard. Source: LAD
Evidence from stone, along with many other historical traces, document the 2,000 year-old history of Boppard.
Among the many historical examples is the Roman Camp in the old part of the town, which is the best-preserved late-antiquity fortress north of the Alps. With its 28 semi-circular towers from the middle of the 4th century AD, the stone fortress once stretched over an area of 4.7 hectares.
The first early-Christian church in Boppard was built in the former baths of the camp. Today, the baptismal font and the pulpit of this church are covered by the stone floor of the late Romanesque St. Severus Church on the market square. The staunch spirit of Boppard’s citizens is clearly visible when looking at the medieval town wall through which the camp was enlarged. Undoubtedly, the Bingen Gate is the most beautiful part of the town wall.
The Elector’s Castle on the riverbank, which was built in the 14th century, today houses the Town Museum. Among the exhibits is a collection of the furniture with which cabinet-maker Michael Thonet revolutionised the world of furniture design in the 19th century.
Also worth seeing are the Ritter-Schwalbach-Haus, a stately noble house from the 15th century, and the former Benedictine provost church in the township of Hirzenach, one of the oldest convents in the Middle Rhine region. In Bad Salzig, a township belonging to Boppard, medicinal waters from a carbonated spring of Epsom salts have been bubbling up from a depth of 446 metres since 1902. In terms of viniculture, Boppard also seems to be one of nature’s favourite children: top-quality wines are ripening at the Boppard Hamm, the biggest area of coherent vineyard slopes on the Middle Rhine. The sunny southern slopes, which are among the steepest in the whole of Germany, also provide a natural habitat for the green lizard, an immigrant from the Mediterranean, as well as for the sun-loving Boppard candytuft (‘Iberis boppardensis’) that grows in no other place in the world.


