Simmern in the Hunsrück

In the place where the catchment basin of the Simmerbach River has formed a large depression ('Simmerbach Mulde') over thousands of years, lies the administrative center of Simmern, once capital of a principality by the same name. This principality was founded in 1410 by the Count Palatine Stephan (1410-1459) of the house of Wittelsbach, which politically joined the estates in the Electoral Palatinate to the Hunsrück region, with Simmern as the administrative center. Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria had already given the town its charter in 1330, at a time when the territorial discord of Hunsrück had reached its peak. This, on the one hand, was due to the Counts of Sponheim who owned properties on the Nahe and Mosel Rivers and wanted to cement their ties through the rule of Kirchberg, Gemünden, Koppenstein and Kastellaun. On the other hand, there were the very expansive politics of the Trier Electorate and archiepiscopal seat under Archbishop Balduin of Luxemburg (1307-1354), as well as the active efforts of the Count Palatines from the Electoral Palatinate to create a position of power in the center of Hunsrück. The heyday of the newly created principality lasted more than 250 years, until, finally, the Thirty Years War and the War of the Palatinate in the year 1689, when the town, together with its medieval fortress, was almost completely destroyed, leaving just a few houses. The «New Castle» was built in the years 1708-1713 in the classicistic style.

Photo: The «New Castle» of Simmern which was built in the years 1708-1713 in the classicistic style.