Niederburg

Niederburg 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 clump village of Niederburg lies at the edge of the Hunsrück near the Rhine with a view of three of the Middle Rhine’s famous castles, standing in Oberwesel: the Schönburg, the Burg Gutenfels and the Burg Pfalzgrafenstein. The municipal area measures 6.78 km², of which 3.17 km² is wooded.HistoryNiederburg is believed to have arisen sometime in the 10th century. Only in 1286, however, did Nyderinberc have its first documentary mention. The first settlers were charcoal makers, farmers and craftsmen. In 1309, it is known from evidence that there was a church in Niederburg, which Prince-Archbishop-Elector Werner von Falkenstein raised to parish church in 1386.In the 14th century, the village had special privileges. Even in the time around 1550, it was second in population in the Electoral-Trier Amt of Oberwesel only to Oberwesel itself.