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Lorchhausen, Rheingau, Rhine Gorge, Middle Rhine, Nassau, Germany

"Lorchhausen, also Lorchhausen in the Rheingau, is a District of the city Lorch and border town between Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The formerly independent municipality of Lorchhausen has its own local district with local advisory board. the lowest lying in all of Hesse. bank of the Rhine The village is the westernmost and at 75 meters above sea level.

Lorchhausen is located on the right bank of the Rhine at river kilometer 542 at the mouth of the 3.2 kilometer long Retzbachs and is considered the gateway to the Rheingau. The village's houses are clustered at the foot of the steep rocky slopes of the Rhenish Slate Mountains along the banks of the Rhine and in the lower Retzbachtal is located adjacent. SauerburgFrench occupation zone Waldeck ruins and includes the Tiefenbachtal. In the east, the Lorchhausen Forest slopes down to the district boundary in the Rhineland-Palatinate became the state border between Hesse and Niedertal. At the same time, the, to which Lorchhausen belonged, and the American occupation zone. After the Second World War, this was the zone border between the Electoral Palatinate, which is for For centuries it was the border between the Rheingau and the Niedertal, the district also has a share in the Retzbachtal. In addition to the Silbergrube, which reaches close to the highest elevation in the Lorchhausen district at 422 meter high.

The oldest known written mention of Lorchhausen occurred in 1211 under the name de Husen in a property list of the Monastery Eberbach. As a settlement of Lorcher noblemen, the place formed a community with Lorch until 1773. With the Reich Deputation Main Conclusion Lorchhausen came to the principality of Nassau-Usingen in 1803, which was elevated to the Duchy of Nassau from 1806 by Napoleon I. In 1866, Lorchhausen, like all of Nassau, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia and was part of the province of Hesse-Nassau.

After the First World War, the place was in a small area, the Bottleneck Free State between the American and French occupation zones. The area existed from 1919 to 1923.

Since 1946 the place has been in the American occupation zonethat emerged after the Second World War.

Rheingau is one of 13 designated German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) producing quality wines (QbA and Prädikatswein). It was named after the traditional region of Rheingau (meaning "Rhine district"), the wine region is situated in the state of Hesse, where it constitutes part of the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis administrative district. Although, making up only 3 percent of the total German vineyard area, Rheingau has been the source of many historically important innovations in German wine making, and contains many wine producers of international reputation, such as Schloss Johannisberg. Rheingau, with 3,125 hectares (7,720 acres) of vineyards in 2016, also boasts a higher proportion of Riesling (77.7%) than any other German wine-growing region, with Spätburgunder (Pinot noir) making up most of the rest (12.2%), followed by Müller-Thurgau.

The geography of the Rheingau is very distinct. Around Wiesbaden, the river Rhine detours from its northward flow west for about 30 km before it flows north again. The greater part of the Rheingau is situated here on the river's right bank, but the region also includes the stretch along Rhine after it turns northward again, around the villages Assmannshausen and Lorch. The vineyards in Hochheim on the Main river are also included, just before it flows into Rhine. The Rheingau spans about 50 km from end to end. North of the Rheingau rises the Taunus mountain range, so most of the Rheingau's vineyards are on south-facing slope between hills and streams, which provides excellent wine-growing conditions in these northerly latitudes.

Since the Verona donation in 983, the Rheingau belonged to the archbishopric of Mainz. Legend has it that Charlemagne let the first vineyards be planted in the region, close to present-day Schloss Johannisberg. However finds like a Roman origin grapevine cutting knife point to even earlier cultivation. Better documented is the early influence of the church on Rheingau winemaking, which was controlled from Eberbach Abbey. Augustinians and Benedictines are known to have inhabited the area of the later abbey from 1116, and in 1135 the Cistercians arrived, sent out from Clairvaux. Legend has it that the Cistercians, which are also credited with having founded the wine industry in Burgundy, brought Pinot noir with them to Rheingau, although the earliest record of the grape variety in Rheingau is from 1470. The slopes down from the Taunus mountains belonging to Eberbach Abbey were planted as vineyards in the 12th century, and early in the 13th century the vineyards had reached their present area. In medieval times, more red than white wine was produced, usually as Gemischter Satz, i.e. the vineyards were planted with mixed varieties which were vinified together.

Rheingau Wine Official Classification of 1867
In 2011 it was unveiled, that the Official Wine Classification in the Rheingau has a 150 years history. The classification was the basis for taxation of wineries after the annexation of the Duchy of Nassau by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866. In the book Der nassauische Weinbau published in 1867 by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg a historical map Weinbau-Karte des nassauischen Rheingaus (Viticultural map of the Rheingau in the Duchy of Nassau), all known vineyards at that time had been marked up by colour, evaluated and classified in first class vineyards (I. Klasse), second class vineyards (II. Klasse) and the remaining vineyards.

The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rüdesheim in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in Germany. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in June 2002 because of its beauty as a cultural landscape, its importance as a route of transport across Europe, and the unique adaptations of the buildings and terraces to the steep slopes of the gorge.

The region's rocks were laid down in the Devonian period and are known as Rhenish Facies. This is a fossil-bearing sedimentary rock type consisting mainly of slate. The rocks underwent considerable folding during the Carboniferous period. The gorge was carved out during a much more recent uplift to leave the river contained within steep walls 200 m high, the most famous feature being the Loreley.

The gorge produces its own microclimate and has acted as a corridor for species not otherwise found in the region. Its slopes have long been terraced for agriculture, in particular viticulture which has good conditions on south-facing slopes. Most of the vineyards belong to the wine region Mittelrhein, but the southernmost parts of the Rhine Gorge fall in Rheingau and Nahe.

The river has been an important trade route into central Europe since prehistoric times and a string of small settlements has grown up along the banks. Constrained in size, many of these old towns retain a historic feel today. With increasing wealth, roughly 40 hilltop castles were built and the valley became a core region of the Holy Roman Empire. It was at the centre of the Thirty Years' War, which left many of the castles in ruins, a particular attraction for today's cruise ships which follow the river. At one time forming a border of France, in the 19th century the valley became part of Prussia and its landscape became the quintessential image of Germany.

This part of the Rhine features strongly in folklore, such as a legendary castle on the Rhine being the setting for the opera Götterdämmerung. The annual Rhine in Flames festivals include spectacular firework displays at Sankt Goar in September and Koblenz in August, the best view being from one of a convoy of boats." - info from Wikipedia.

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

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Taken in: Germany / Rheinland-Pfalz / Landkreis Mainz-Bingen / Bacharach (show map)

Taken on: July 3, 2019

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