A Zone Missionary Outing to Koblenz

Today was a public holiday in Germany–Ascension Day, commemorating Christ’s return to heaven. We planned a Zone Activity today (Monday) since the office was closed. Our outing took us to Koblenz, a couple of hours away in the Rhine River Valley. We carpooled and took 3 vans to get everyone to a riverboat pier Koblenz by 10:30.

We got there about 30 minutes early, so we had time to look around a bit. This History Column greeted us as we came up out of the car park. It’s a really interesting depiction of 2000 years in Koblenz.

We found others, and went quickly into the heart of Koblenz to see the town squares and the old churches.

This is the Beautiful Liebfrauen Kirche in Koblenz:

Here’s the history of this church–First built about 1180, added to in the 14oos, the baroque towers were added in 1693, badly damaged during the war in 1944, rebuilt by 1957, new choir windows in 1992, interior restoration in 2000.

Then we headed to the dock to meet the rest of our group at 10:30 to begin our river cruise.

We passed by the tram that we’d take across the river later this afternoon.

Embarking on our adventure!

The water levels are extremely high right now.

We were on the boat for about 45 minutes. We had some lunch and enjoyed the watching the towns and castles on either side of the river.

This was our destination–Stolzenfels Castle.

There are dozens of river boat cruises going and coming up and down the Rhine. They stop at interesting sites and castles for the visitors to get off, then at a certain time we were to meet back again to take the boat back to Koblenz.

We hiked up to the castle along a path through some lush green woods.

Wikipedia: Stolzenfels Castle is a former medieval fortress castle (“Burg”) turned into a palace, near Koblenz on the left bank of the Rhine, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Stolzenfels was a ruined 13th-century castle, gifted to the Prussian crown prince, Frederick William in 1823. He had it rebuilt as a 19th-century palace in Gothic Revival style. Today, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

The original castle at Stolzenfels was built as a fortification by the Prince-Bishop of Trier, then Arnold II. von Isenburg. Finished in 1259, Stolzenfels was used to protect the toll station on the Rhine, where the ships, at the time the main means of transportation for goods, had to stop and pay toll (later moved to Engers).

Over the years it was extended several times (notably in the 14th century), occupied by French and Swedish troops in the Thirty Years’ War and finally, in 1689, destroyed by the French during the Nine Years’ War.

The ruin was used as a quarry during the 18th century.

In 1802, the castle became the property of the city of Koblenz. In 1823, the ruined castle was given as a gift by the city to the then Crown Prince of Prussia, the future Frederick William IV of Prussia. In 1822, the Rhineland had become a province of Prussia. Frederick William had traveled along the Rhine in 1815, the year when the Congress of Vienna awarded several Princedoms in the area to Prussia, and had been fascinated by the beauty, romance and history of the region. In the spirit of Romanticism, Frederick William now had the castle rebuilt as a Gothic Revival palace, inspired by his cousin Frederick’s rebuilding of nearby Rheinstein Castle and his cousin Maximilian II of Bavaria’s romantic renovation of Hohenschwangau Castle.

By 1842, the main buildings and the gardens were finished. On 14 September of that year, Frederick William, since 1840 King of Prussia, inaugurated his new summer residence in a great celebration with a torchlight procession and medieval costumes.

Inauguration of the Gothic chapel occurred in 1845 during a visit by Queen Victoria. Work on the interior of Stolzenfels castle was completed in 1850.