Stephen and Elaine Biddulph: Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein Festung

19 - 25 OKTOBER 2015

pathway in cemetery

Another week gone! Where? I don't know. They just keep coming and going. Our wonderful huge cemetery forest that we have grown to love so much is transforming itself into an autumn wonderland of brilliant colors. It is so interesting to have seen it in winter, then blossom into spring and summer, and now moving into glorious old age. We love the walks there and will be sad to see winter, with its dull, foggy, overcast days return. However, when spring comes once again to our forest it will be getting close to returning home to Utah to await our next adventure!
Saturday we went with the Hawkins (senior missionaries from Bountiful - he's area finance and she is an area mental health advisor) up to Koblenz to visit the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the east bank of the Rhein River. It is about 60 minutes from Frankfurt. It wasn't a very good day, overcast mostly and a chilly wind, but it was fun to get away from Frankfurt.
Despite that it is nearly Halloween, the German countryside is still green and verdant. The fields are a mixture of brilliant green grass and crops and smooth

Yellow Ferns

brown dirt harrowed and waiting for winter snows--if there are any this year. Bright yellow and white flowers still grace the roadsides in places, and the forests are a collage of reds, yellows, greens, and browns. The Germans love to get out and walk-hike and bike, and one can often see small groups of women walking in isolated fields, and men and women of all ages riding their bikes along bike paths.
Koblenz receives its name from the Romans who built a fortress at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein Rivers. At the confluence, what is called the "Deutches Eche," the massive statue of Emperor William I, rises impressively. Beautiful promenades stretch along the bank of the Rhein, shaded by

Koblenz and Rhein

wonderful trees, shops, and little Kiosks. Across the river, on steep cliffs, rises the massive Ehrenbreitstein fortress (Festung).
The Ehrenbreitstein fortress has more than 1000 years of history. The Celtic people occupied this high ground, followed by a Roman fortress that overlooked and guarded the Rhein. The Romans seemed to have dominated the entire length of the Rhein region. The city of Trier, up river from Koblenz at the head of the Mosel River Valley near Luxembourg, claims to be the oldest Roman establishment in Europe. But a Roman camp was at Koblenz in the 3rd century. This was followed by a Medieval castle, then, a Baroque fortified house, and in 1817 the first stones were laid for the foundation of the Ehrenbreitstein fortress. It was completed in 1828 and was

Ehrenbreitstein Festung above the Rhein

considered to be impregnable because of its strategic location on the vertical cliffs facing the Rhein and the structure itself.
In the early 1800, French troops marched up the Rhein and sacked many of the famous castles. Ehrenbreitstein was never outright conquered. However, a siege was laid against the fortress, and a few years later the garrison surrendered because of wont of sustenance. Its walls are massive and laced with inner tunnels with cannon portals all along the way. Several museums within its various buildings offers a look at the archaeological, anthropological, and historical aspects of this fortress. The fortress was used and occupied also during both world wars.