Remagen
REMAGEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, on the left bank of the Rhine, 1 2 m. above Bonn, by the railway from Cologne to Coblenz, and at the junction of the Ahr valley railway to Adenau. Pop. (1900) 3534. The (Roman Catholic) parish church is remarkable for a gate (Romertor) with grotesque sculptures of animals, dating from the 12th century. Archaeologists have variously interpreted its original purpose, whether as church door, city gate or palace gate. The industry of the place is almost wholly concerned with the preparation of wine, in which a large export trade is done. Just below the town, on a height overlooking the Rhine, stands the Apollinaris church, built 1839-53 n the site of a chapel formerly dedicated to St Martin, and containing the relics of St Apollinaris. It is a frequent place of pilgrimage from all parts of the lower Rhine. According to legend, the ship conveying the relics of the three kings and of Bishop Apollinaris from Milan to Cologne in 1164 could not be got to move away from the spot until the bones of St Apollinaris had been interred in St Martin's chapel.
Remagen (the Rigomagus of the Romans) originally belonged to the duchy of Julich. Many Roman antiquities have been discovered here. In 1857 a votive altar dedicated to Jupiter, Mars and Mercury was unearthed, and is now in the Provincial Museum at Bonn.
See Kinkel, Der Fiihrer durch das Ahrthal nebst Beschreibung der Stadt Remagen (2nd ed., Bonn, 1854).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
