Valwig

Valwig is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem, whose seat is in the like-named town. Valwig is also a winegrowing centre.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies on the river Moselle’s right bank (at kilometre 55). The district seat of Cochem is some 3 km away.

Geology

The Moselle valley is part of the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge (Rhenish Slate Mountains) and is marked by steep and craggy mountain slopes.

Neighbouring municipalities

Valwig’s municipal area borders along the Moselle downstream on Cochem, and upstream on Bruttig-Fankel, and it is separated by the Moselle itself from Ernst. Over the Valwigerberg (mountain), Treis-Karden can be reached.

Constituent communities

Valwig’s Ortsteile are:

History

In the earliest documents, Valwig is mentioned under the names Falavoia (AD 866), Falaveia (893) und Valefayer (1130). It is, however, assumed that both Celts and Romans lived in Valwig. This is seen in the Celtic-Roman name Balbiacum, meaning “Balbius’s Settlement”. Valwig is therefore one of the oldest settlements along the Moselle. With the occupation of the Rhine’s left bank by French Revolutionary troops in 1794, the Electorate of Trier, for centuries the local overlord, fell. In 1814 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.