"You have to sit in the shade of the garden of an old, elegant winegrower's house or in the poet's hermitage of the Brixiade. Then you have Cochem in full comfort before your eyes: Moselle front, Martinskirche and Capuchin monastery, the Peterskirchlein picturesque on the mountain and above all the castle - radiant, new And in the background the wild Endert, gloomy, shattered, the Winneburg. Above everything, however, was enthroned with the keep and Pallas, stables and barns, bay windows and turrets, the electoral palace ... "
This is how Ludwig Mathar begins his historical considerations about the city and Cochem Castle. The first news from Cochem, whose history in the Celtic, Roman and early medieval times is lost in the dark, is given by a certificate from the Prüm Abbey dated 20.XII.866. The noble matron Hieldilda donated a number of goods to the monastery, including a manor house "in villa cuchema". The Rhenish Palatine Counts, the Ezzones, held court here until 1151. One of them, Ehrenfried, the brother-in-law of Emperor Otto, is probably also their builder. Richeza, his daughter, married the Polish king Miseco, but returned to the Moselle after his death, driven out by the Poles. She spent her last years alternately on the castles Cochem and Coraidelstein in Klotten. Palatine Count Hermann von Salm and Luxemburg played a little glorious role, who was set up in the Investiture Controversy as a king against Emperor Heinrich IV. He succumbed to the emperor in 1085, then adventurously moved up and down the Moselle, until in 1088 he fell in front of his own Cochem castle. He does not seem to have found much respect, as his nickname "Garlic King" shows. The Hohenstaufe Konrad III put the disputes of the Rheinecker and Stahlecker from the Rhine over the Palatine count. 1151 came to an end when he came from Boppard to surprise Cochem Castle and moved in as a Reichslehen.
Old city gate
Until 1224, Cochem was now an imperial estate and royal customs house. At the castle, imperial castle counts from the family of those of Klotten, who occasionally also became robber knights. In 1282 Rudolf von Habsburg had to besiege the castle and hold Burgrave Cuno to account for his raids. In the "Burgfrieden" below the castle and also in the "Herrenstraße" lived the sub-ministerial, mostly noble burghers, who were obliged to the burgrave, but enjoyed freedom from all urban burdens and victims. The "Cochemer Reich", a vast area that included the later offices of Cochem, Kaisersesch and Mayen, the "Cröver Reich", Springiersbach and the Kondelwald, pushed like a barrier between the two parts of the Archdiocese of Trier, the Nieder- and Top pin. In 1294 King Adolf von Nassau met the efforts of the Archbishops of Trier to round off their territory by pledging Archbishop Boemund I. Cochem. It was never redeemed and was part of the Kurtrier Territory until 1794. This started a happy time for the castle, town and the newly established Cochem office. "You can live well under the crook", it was not without reason. Archbishop Balduin (1307-1354), the brother of Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, continued to expand the castle. The Moselweg is expanded, the permanent Kemplon erected. Cochem receives city rights in 1332 and is fortified. Distinguished genders, such as those of Dietz an der Lahn, Ulmen, Bürresheim, Arras and Monreal, are proud to be part of the castle. The Winneburgers, whose festivals in the Enderttal have probably existed since 1200, and later the Metternich, practice the Saturday dish on the market in Cochem. The lords of the course state are often and happy to be guests here. Archbishop Richard zu Greiffenklau moves with his guest, Emperor Maximilian I in a solemn procession to the city and St. Martin´s Church. Read More
Distance between:
Berlin to Cochem316 Miles / 509 Kms Munich to Cochem243 Miles / 392 Kms Hamburg to Cochem266 Miles / 429 Kms
Total Area 21.18Km2
Postal Code 56812
Community Code: 07 1 35 020
Population (2019)
Total: 5,312 inhabitants
Total Men: 2,719
Total Women: 2,593
Density: 251 people x km2
50.146944,7.166667