Cochem

Cochem stands on the Moselle beneath a hilltop castle overlooking the river valley. Recorded as Villa Cuchema in 866, it was an imperial estate until King Adolf of Nassau pledged it to the archbishop of Trier in 1294. Cochem received town rights in 1332, and walls and gates soon followed. The town became a centre of trade and wine growing within the Electorate of Trier.

Plague struck in 1423–1425. During the Thirty Years' War the town was besieged but not taken, and in 1623 Elector Lothar von Metternich founded a Capuchin monastery. French troops captured and destroyed Cochem and its castle in 1689 during the Nine Years' War. Reconstruction was slow. French rule returned in 1794, before the Congress of Vienna assigned the town to Prussia in 1815.