Oberwesel

My Images of Oberwesel on Imagekind
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Oberwesel is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis district of the Rhineland-Palatinate. It belongs to the municipality of Sankt Goar-Oberwesel, and dates to Celtic times. The Romans operated a horse exchange and hostel at Oberwesel. It also served as a manor and court for the Franconian counts who ruled after the decline of Rome. Otto I assigned it to the Diocese of Magdeburg in 966, and it received its charter from Frederick II in 1220. In 1390/91, Werner von Falkenstein, Archbishop of Trier took it after a siege. Between 1220 and the mid-fourteenth century, revenues from wine growing and salmon fishing helped fund the building of city walls. During the later Middle Ages, the Liebfrauenkirche and Sanktmartinskirche were built, as were a home for a lay sisterhood (the Beguines) and the Franciscan Monoriten Monastery. During the Nine Years’ War, Oberwesel was destroyed by the French. In 1794, it was again destroyed by the French. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, it was assigned to Prussia.

A tale relates that seven wild beautiful maidens once lived the nearby castle of Schönburg. They toyed with and broke the heart of every suitor who called upon them. At a banquet held at the castle, two knights commenced to fight over one of the maidens. The other knights demanded that the maidens make a final decision on whom they would pick to be husbands. At first, the sisters were reluctant to comply, but they seemingly relented, and told the knights they would announce their decisions the next day. In the morning, when the knights assembled in the hall, an attendant announced that the maidens were waiting in the garden near the river. When the knights arrived in the garden, they spied the maidens in a boat on the Rhine. The eldest sister stood and regaled the suitors, saying that the maidens purposed to move on to Cologne where they would hoodwink other suitors. Suddenly a storm overturned the boat, and the sisters were drowned. Every now and again, they appear as seven pointed rocks which threaten mariners with disaster