Welcome

to the Romantic Rhine
- from the Drachenfels crag  to the Deutsches Eck -

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    Isle of Nonnenwerth in the Rhine

English travellers, painters and poets had been discovering the beauty of the Rhine since of the 18th century. First they focused their on the natural landscape, sheer rocks and romantic Rhine villages and were awe-struck by  the imposing silhouette of ruins and mediaeval castles. Then they turned their thoughts to the region's  history. They revelled in the mediaeval atmosphere of the churches an collected stories and legends about the Rhine:

Prominent figures helped to further  the Romantic movement of the age with their works and stories. Goethe, Lord Byron and even Victor Hugo extolled  the virtues of the "Gesamtkunstwerk"  (complete work of art) with its multitude of castles and dramatically beautiful, legend shrouded landscape. These aspects are also in evidenc in Richard Wagner's operas. However, the most notable creator of "Rhine Romanticism"was Clemens von Brentano. His Lorelei ballad, which was later turned into a poem by Düsseldorf's Heinrich Heine, is still considered synonymous with the period. Famous painters such as Turner travelled the Rhine and reproduced their impressions in the  form of dramatic paintings and engravings.  In England the demand for Rhine landscapes boomed. Countless painters settled on the Rhine.

As a national German style, Gothic architecture significantly influwenced the architectural desings of the Romanticperiod. The most impressive exemple of this is the completion of Cologne Cathedral in the 19th century, which served as a model for numerous neo-Gothic buildings. For example, Drachenburg Palace an Stolzenfels Palace became important monuments to neo-Gothic architecture  on the Rhine

We invite you to come with us on a voyage of discovery along the Romantic Rhine.