Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds.
Bacharach from the Postenturm.
Aerial photograph 2007
Rhine in Bacharach, view from Castle Stahleck
Wernerkapelle in an engraving by William Tombleson
Stahleck Castle is a 12th-century fortified castle in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley at Bacharach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It stands on a crag approximately 160 metres (520 ft) above sea level on the left bank of the river at the mouth of the Steeg valley, approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Koblenz, and offers a commanding view of the Lorelei valley. Its name means "impregnable castle on a crag", from the Middle High German words stahel (steel) and ecke. It has a water-filled partial moat, a rarity in Germany. Built on the orders of the Archbishop of Cologne, it was destroyed in the late 17th century but rebuilt in the 20th and is now a hostel.
View over Stahleck Castle to the Rhine
The castle from the northwest
Otto II of Bavaria and Agnes of the Palatinate in a 16th-century painting based on a 15th-century original
Spanish forces defend Stahleck Castle against recapture by Swedes in 1632; engraving by Matthäus Merian, 1646