Riesweiler

Riesweiler 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 Rheinböllen, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies at the north foot of the Soonwald, a heavily wooded section of the west-central Hunsrück, roughly 2 km southeast of Simmern and 9 km southwest of Rheinböllen. Within Riesweiler’s limits is the district’s highest peak at 653 m above sea level, the Simmerkopf.HistoryRiesweiler might have had a Roman past, for it lies on an old Roman road. In 1135, Riesweiler had its first documentary mention. According to historical researchers, though, Riesweiler must already have existed by 995, when the oldest royal estate, “Denzen” was donated by King Otto III to his stalwart, Bezelin. Already in this time, the name Riesweiler (then in the form Riswillri) was cropping up.The Eremitage Maria Reizenborn near Riesweiler, reconstructed since 1980, was from the 12th to 14th century a resting place on Saint James’s Way, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, the section of which running from Frankfurt and Mainz by way of Bingen to Trier crossed the Soonwald ridges between Stromberg and Kirchberg.