Romantic Cities – Cultural highlights, 365 days a year

Koblenz, 14/12/2022 – There are always cultural highlights to discover wherever you look in Rhineland‑Palatinate’s Romantic Cities. Get planning, next year could be an exciting one!

We will reveal the best of the highlights below.

The Romantic Cities are Idar-Oberstein, Koblenz, Mainz, Speyer, Trier and Worms. Together with the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland‑Palatinate (GDKE), they combine the charm of an imperial history with world-famous wines and heartfelt hospitality. But each of the cities has a unique character all of its own.
 

Highlights, dates and news in 2023
On the first weekend in August every year, Idar-Oberstein plays host to the traditional German Gemstone Polishing and Goldsmith Market, where artists and craftsmen showcase all the gemstones and jewellery for which the region is so famous.

The ‘Open Studios’ event held on the weekend before Easter every year also gives visitors the opportunity to get to know the artists and their workshops.

The city on the river Nahe boasts not only fine gemstones but also fine wines. The new ‘Wein und edelStein’ format at the German Gemstone Museum combines the two, with an opportunity to taste some themed Nahe wines. Events are currently lined up for 7 January and 11 March, with more to follow.

You can find fine wine in Mainz too. Rhenish Hesse is the largest wine-growing region in Germany, so it is no surprise that there is a huge selection. The ‘Mainzer WeinUfer’ on 19–21 May is just one of the many opportunities to sample the wines. ‘Summer in the City’ takes place between the end of June and the end of July. ‘The Hollywood Vampires’ band featuring Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper and Joe Perry is already set to top the bill of this open-air concert event.

As every year, the Mainz Stadtpark provides a stunning backdrop to the Mainz Wine Market on the last weekend of August and the first weekend of September. The walkabout wine tasting is a popular option, allowing visitors to stroll around the gardens and enjoy a varied selection of wines.

The programme of cultural events laid on in Speyer for 2023 is also top notch. To mark the start of spring, the fairground comes to life from 6–23 April.

Speyer boasts two UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites, its cathedral and the ShUM sites. These sites are perfectly staged to mark UNESCO World Heritage Day on 4 June.

The famous ‘Internationale Musiktage Dom zu Speyer’ (International Speyer Cathedral Music Festival) will also take place again in 2023. Between 23 September and 7 October, the world’s largest Romanesque church welcomes a whole host of famous ensembles.

Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz was established in 1992 to combine and promote cultural projects in Rhineland-Palatinate and to raise awareness of the cultural events on offer. The official starting gun for Kultursommer 2023 will be fired in Trier on the second weekend in May. Like the Kultursommer event as a whole, the opening party will be focusing on Western Europe. As Trier is so close to Luxembourg, Belgium and France, the opening weekend should have a really international feel.

Since 2011, the highlight of the late summer has been the Illuminale light festival on 29 and 30 September. Every year it lights up the bushes, trees and buildings in spectacular new ways.

Things get colourful in the summer in Koblenz too. ‘Rhein in Flammen®’ draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the banks of the Rhine every year. On the second weekend in August, various fireworks display light up the night sky above Koblenz in a blaze of colour.

The Old Town Festival in Koblenz kicks off the summer season on 30 June to 2 July. This festival was the brainchild of some of the people living in the old town in 1975 who aimed to highlight the urgent need for renovation of the old town (which has since been completed). It has since developed into a big festival with a great reputation well beyond the city limits.

The city of Worms is bringing heroic sagas to life in 2023. The special exhibition ‘NIBEL RHEIN. The River Rhine in the Nibelung Saga’ is an installation that will be offering an immersive literary and musical experience at the Nibelungen Museum until 21 May. Once again, the highlight of the year is the Nibelung Festival (7–23 July).

The lively Jewish culture in Worms has been celebrated since 2005. The ShUM Cultural Festival between September and November showcases various facets of historical and contemporary Judaism.

The General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland‑Palatinate (GDKE) is responsible for the preservation and maintenance of the physical cultural heritage to ensure that the extensive and varied cultural offerings in Rhineland‑Palatinate are still available for future generations to enjoy.

Among other things, it looks after the three state museums in Mainz, Trier and Koblenz and numerous castles, palaces and ancient treasures.

Between 2 April and 5 November, the Landesmuseum Koblenz is hosting an interactive family exhibition called ‘Gestures – storytelling with the hands in the past, present and future’ where visitors can get genuinely hands-on with gestures and their meanings.

Once again in 2023, living history, guided tours in period costume and interactive features will be transporting visitors to the castles and palaces of the Palatinate, the Eifel and the Middle Rhine, and into the turbulent history of Rhineland‑Palatinate.
 

Bookings and enquiries

Rheinland-Pfalz Tourismus GmbH
Löhrstrasse 103-105
56068 Koblenz

Tel.: +49 (0)261 915 200
Email: info@romantic-cities.com 
Website: www.romantic-cities.com
 

Travel industry & press

Romantic Cities
c/o TourComm Germany
Spitalgässchen 7
69469 Weinheim

Tel.: +49 (0)6201 60208-21
E-Mail: marc.werner@tourcomm-germany.com