Damscheid

Damscheid is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Sankt Goar-Oberwesel, whose seat is in the town of Oberwesel.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the Hunsrück on a narrow ridge (330 m above sea level) bordered in the north by the Niederbach (brook) and in the south by the Engehöller Tal (dale). A broad belt of forest in the west forms the link between the Damscheider Land – the village’s local area – and the Hunsrück plateau.HistoryDamscheid is believed to have had its beginnings during the period of widespread forest clearing in Carolingian times. Lending weight to this belief is the worship of the Frankish saint, Aldegonde. Nevertheless, it is known that humans had settled here earlier than the Franks, for the foundations of Roman buildings and remnants of a water supply line have been unearthed.In 1256, Damscheid had its first documentary mention and got its first church sometime between 1150 and 1200. Indeed, Damscheid’s oldest and at the same time most striking building work is the square churchtower with its pointed helm roof. It bears witness to Damscheid’s having had a role in the Hunsrück’s power structures long before the first documentary mention. It was once a defensive tower, and according to expert opinion, was built between 1130 and 1150. Arrowslits, some of which can still be made out, show that the tower had a defensive function in the Middle Ages.