"Remagen in The Beautiful Rhine Valley " a Remagen Travel Page by RhineRoll

Remagen is a town of some 20,000 people, beautifully situated in the upper Middle Rhine valley. The northernmost parts of town border the city of Bonn. There has been a settlement at this place for more than 2,000 years. The name Remagen is thought to derive from Celtic Rigomagos, magos meaning field, plain and Ri meaning King -- field of the king. Linguistically, Remagen is hence related to Celtic places far afield such as Magherafelt (Machaire Fuilt -- machair meaning plain, field) or Portree (Port Rėgh). Celts were living here till perhaps the first century BC, when Germanic tribes began taking over the area. The Romans built a military fort within the downtown area near the main church, some relics are on display at the small Roman museum. The Romans were also the first ones who put in place an administrative border between two provinces in the Vinxtbach valley just south of Remagen. This later became a tribal border between different septs of the Franks -- the Ripuarians in the north and the Moselle Franks further south. Ever since those times, Remagen has been tied to downstream Cologne and Bonn, rather than Koblenz which is about 35 km upstream.

Given its wonderful setting, Remagen is surprisingly unpretentious. Tourism is not completely absent, there is a large camping ground popular with the Dutch and the Scandinavians and especially British tourists use Remagen as a base to start their Rhine river cruises. The Rhine promenade is currenty being re-developed which should improve the appeal to some extent. Some of the ugly houses behind the promenade, however, won't go away, unless someone makes the courageous move to buy them and tear them down. Nevertheless, there are some very beautiful corners, and if you take the time to investigate Remagen's old town, you are certain to be rewarded and you have the benefit of not being disturbed by too many other visitors.

Remagen's top tourist attraction is of course the spectacular Arp museum in Remagen-Rolandseck, the most northerly part of town.

If you have heard of Remagen at all, it is most likely due to the famous railway bridge here that was captured by the Americans after the Germans had failed to blow it up. The 1968 movie starring George Segal was not shot on location in Remagen but in Czechoslovakia, until the crew had to flee from there due to the beginning of the violent Soviet clampdowns on the reformist Czech strand of socialism. The scripts are said to contain the legendary phrase "no shooting today because of shooting".