Cochem - Reichsburg

Seen from the banks of the Moselle is Reichsburg Cochem, towering above the small village of Cochem. Erected as a toll castle around 1000.

After Heinrich I. von Lothringen had shown signs of insanity and so was taken for treatment to the abbey of Gorze, his wife Mathilde lived here. Some years later Heinrich fled Gorze. He then entered the castle in July 1060 - and killed his wife with an axe. He was brought to the monastery of Echternach, where he died only about two weeks later. This earned him two bynames: "Henricus Monachus" and "Henricus Furiosus".

The castle got destroyed during the Nine Years' War, but a (very) wealthy family from Berlin acquired the ruin in 1868 and - inspired by the Romanticism - had the castle rebuilt in a historistic/neogothic style. This is may not be the medieval castle, it once was, but it is very picturesque. Even in autumn.