The Binger Loch
A dangerous rocky narrows that wrecked ships before it was widened in the nineteenth century.
Gillfoto — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arcalino — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ingo Mehling — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ingo Mehling — CC BY-SA 4.0
No. The tower stands on a rocky island with no crossing and is closed to visitors, being used by the river navigation authority. Viewing from outside is all that is possible, and it is enough — the tower is small and its value is in its position and its story rather than its interior.
By river boat between Bingen or Rüdesheim and St Goarshausen — about three hours past the castles, the Lorelei rock and the villages. Or by train on the eastern bank, which is faster and cheaper with a good view too. Many go out by boat and return by train.
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A tower on a small rocky island in the Rhine near Bingen, at the entrance to the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Its original function was practical: it was built in the fourteenth century as a toll point on passing ships, and later served as a signal tower warning navigators of the Binger Loch — a dangerous rocky narrows in the river where many were wrecked before it was widened in the nineteenth century. The name comes from a legend: Archbishop Hatto II is said to have refused to feed the poor in a famine and burned them, whereupon armies of mice fell upon him; he fled to this tower in mid-river, they followed, and ate him. The likelier explanation is linguistic, the name being a corruption of a word meaning toll tower. The tower is closed to visitors — it stands on an island with no crossing. It is seen from the Bingen bank, from the deck of a river boat, or from the train on the opposite bank. This is a stop of minutes within a day in the Rhine valley, not a destination on its own.
A dangerous rocky narrows that wrecked ships before it was widened in the nineteenth century.
The tale of Archbishop Hatto — the likelier explanation being toll tower corrupted.
It is best seen from the deck of a river boat passing close by.
On a rocky island in the Rhine near Bingen