Traben-Trarbach

By 1900 Traben-Trarbach was the second largest wine trading centre in Europe after Bordeaux, and the merchants who made that money built in the Jugendstil manner, commissioning Bruno Möhring for the bridge gate, villas and the Hotel Bellevue, so the town has an unusual concentration of Art Nouveau architecture for its size. Beneath it runs a network of vaulted cellars on several levels, dug for storing wine and totalling kilometres of passages; guided tours go through parts of them, and in winter a Christmas market is held underground in the vaults. Steep vineyards rise on both banks.

History

As early as 830 the Aachener Hof estate is recorded, when Emperor Louis the Pious gave Traben and its lands to the minster at Aachen. The town lay in the Hinter County of Sponheim, centred on Trarbach, and in the 1683-1684 War of the Reunions France seized it and Vauban built the fortress of Mont-Royal above Traben, with ramparts 30 metres high and 3 km long and room for 12,000 troops, later demolished. In 1816 the area passed to Prussia, with Trarbach the seat of a mayoralty until 1884 (Wikipedia, Traben-Trarbach).

What to look for

• The Möhring buildings - a bridge gate, villas and hotel in Jugendstil.
• The underground cellars - kilometres of vaults on several levels.
• The underground market - a Christmas market held in the cellars.
• The two banks - Traben and Trarbach facing each other across the river.

When to go

May to October for the town and vineyards; the underground Christmas market runs on Advent weekends and is ticketed. Cellar tours need booking.

Before you go

Cellar tours run on set days and must be booked. The cellars are cold and damp. The Christmas market is crowded and ticketed.

Nearby

Bernkastel-Kues lies upriver; the Hunsrück rises south.

Key facts