Sankt Goar is one of the most fascinating towns on the shore of the romantic Rhine river. The central location in the UNESCO world heritage of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, but also the castle of Rheinfels, its close neighbourhood to the rock of Loreley and sister town Sankt Goarshausen with Katz and Maus castles make Sankt Goar such attractive.

Sankt Goar owes its gorgeous atmosphere also to its location at the narrow valley of the Rhine where it leads through the Rhenish shist massive. The many half-timbered buildings with regional-typical, skew-covered roofs and Gothic as well as neo-Gothic pileworks and turrets are very attractive as well.

The small town belongs to the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate and has 2.373 inhabitants. It lies in approx. 25 kilometres distance from both Koblenz and Bingen. A ferry goes at the part where the Rhine is only 250m wide and connects Sankt Goar with its sister town.

Although Sankt Goar owns town rights since 1183, it could hardly grow due to its far to close and narrow location to the Rhine shore and the long distance to big centres. Since possibilities of employment are lacking, the number of inhabitants steadily decreased since 1970 when 3,500 people were living here.  

However, Sankt Goar is touristically very interesting, because it has a Doll and Bear Museum, a River Observer and Pilot Museum as well as a Museum of Local History that is situated at Rheinfels castle which itself goes back to the year 1245. Since 1925 the castle belongs to the town which maintains a hotel and restaurant in it.

In summer the event schedule of Sankt Goar is outstanding:

1st weekend in June: Castle market and knights tournament at castle of Rheinfels

3rd weekend in July: Rifle Club Festival

4th weekend in July: Werlauer Festival

1st weekend in August: Hansen Festival

1st weekend in September: Biebernheim‘s Quetschekerb (Prune Festival)

3rd weekend in September: Rhine in Flames, fireworks show

Sankt Goar has a town partnership with the canton of Châtillon-en-Bazois in France.

More information: http://www.st-goar.de/131-1-.html