Loreley Info

On this site you can find all information you need to spend an active and recreational holiday in the valley of the Loreley ( Lorelei ), the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage.

Loreley ( Lorelei )

Source: Felix König

The Loreley ( Lorelei ) is a 433 feet high slate cliff in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage near the town of St. Goarshausen. The view of St. Goarshausen, from the Loreley ( Lorelei ) outlook point, with Castle Katz and the view of the town St. Goar and its Fortress Rheinfels, leaves a wonderful impression on all Loreley ( Lorelei ) tourists.

The Rhine, at the Loreley ( Lorelei ), is up to 82 feet deep and only 371 feet wide. Because this area is so deep and narrow, it is one of the most dangerous places in the World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Ships, crossing each other here and all along the section between Oberwesel and St. Goarshausen, are directed by light signals, called “Wahrschau”.

History of the Loreley ( Lorelei )

First traces of human settlement have been apparent from the time the Loreley ( Lorelei ) Plateau was level with the Rhine (600.000 years ago). During the Middle Ages the Loreley ( Lorelei ) was well known, along with the Binger Loch, as the most dangerous section of the Rhine. Many mariners in their wooden dinghies came to tragedy here. In St. Goar, directly opposite the Loreley ( Lorelei ), the Saint Goar settled to save shipwrecked mariners and nurse them back to health.

Variation of the Loreley ( Lorelei ) Myth

The name Loreley ( Lorelei ) appears in a romantic ballad written by the poet Clemens Brentano in 1801. In this ballad, Loreley ( Lorelei ) is a beauty from Bacharach who wants to take her own life because her truelove is unfaithful. The bishop, fascinated by her loveliness and humility, takes her to a convent. En route to the convent, she stops at the cliff to look back on the palace of her truelove. When she sees him riding away, she throws herself in despair into the turbulent waters below.
In the Rhine fairytale of 1810, Brentano varied the theme so that Loreley ( Lorelei ) appears as the distraught woman Lurley, sitting on a rock combing her long golden hair and luring the bargees into their destruction.