Cochem Essentials: Old Town to Reichsburg

Begin outside the historic mustard mill on Endertstraße. This is a working place, not simply an old façade: mustard is still made here with a traditional mill. Cochem's official visitor information describes the mill as more than two hundred years old. A guided visit inside is separate from this outdoor audio walk, so …

GER Cochem, Brückenstraße 005 | 🔗 wikipedia.org

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Pause outside the Enderttor, where you can see the gate without blocking the passage. This is one of the surviving entrances in Cochem's medieval town wall. Imagine arriving when that wall marked the boundary between the town's narrow streets and the roads beyond. The gate controlled movement into a place shaped by tra…

Find the Bockbrunnen on the Moselle promenade and stand clear of the riverside path. The fountain recalls one of the local 'Cochemer Stückelchen': humorous little stories told about the town and its people. Look for the goat in the sculpture. Its playful subject belongs to Cochem's everyday folklore rather than to the …

Cochem - St. Martin | 🔗 live.staticflickr.com

Photo: onnola / Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0Photo by onnola on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Cochem - St. Martin | 🔗 live.staticflickr.com

Photo: onnola / Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0Photo by onnola on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Cochem - St. Martin | 🔗 live.staticflickr.com

Photo: onnola / Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0Photo by onnola on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Pause where you can see St. Martin's distinctive tower. A church here is mentioned around 1130. Its older choir dates from about 1456 and survived the bombing of 5 January 1945, when much of the rest of the building was destroyed. The new nave, designed by Dominikus Böhm, was completed in 1959. The onion-shaped tower f…

File:Cochem, Marktplatz, Giebel -- 2018 -- 0056 | 🔗 wikimedia.org

Photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

File:Cochem, Marktplatz, Haus mit Glockenspiel -- 2018 -- 0054 | 🔗 wikimedia.org

Photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

File:Cochem, Marktplatz, Wegweiser -- 2018 -- 0055 | 🔗 wikimedia.org

Photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons

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Find a safe place to pause on the Marktplatz. Half-timbered houses and slate roofs frame the square. At its centre stands the Martinsbrunnen; the baroque town hall on the northern side dates from 1739. Look from the fountain to the town hall, then to the narrow lanes. Several centuries of Cochem's everyday life meet in…

Pause on the public approach to the former Capuchin monastery and look down towards the old town. Cochem's official visitor guide dates the building to around 1630. It served as a monastery until 1802 and is now a cultural centre. The change of use tells a quiet story of how the town has kept an older building in daily…

Take a moment at the public viewpoint on the Tummelchen. From this hill you can read Cochem's shape: the crowded old town below, the Moselle beside it and Reichsburg across the slope. Parts of the old town wall survive here, including the little Zuckertürmchen watchtower. A reconstructed vineyard hut recalls another us…

Cochem and Reichsburg | 🔗 wikipedia.org

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Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2007-0312-500, Cochem, Einweihung der Moselbrücke | 🔗 wikipedia.org

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BurgCochem1900 | 🔗 wikipedia.org

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Pause outside the castle entrance and look back over Cochem and the Moselle. This hill explains why a fortress belonged here: it commands a view across the river valley and the town below. Cochem Castle is recorded in 1051 and became an imperial castle in 1151. The building you see today, though, is not simply an untou…