page_title: Lower Moselle
section_title: Development of terracing on the Lower Moselle
hierarchical_section_title: Lower Moselle / Development of terracing on the Lower Moselle
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die drei heute häufigsten Terrassenmauer-Konstruktionen
context_page_description: The Lower Moselle is the name given to the lower reaches of the Moselle river - just under 100 kilometres long - in Germany between Pünderich and the Moselle's confluence with the Rhine at Koblenz. The Lower Moselle landscape differs from that of the Middle and Upper Moselle, much of it forming a narrower valley with high and steep sides in places. On the cut banks of the river that are oriented towards the south and west, vineyards are managed, often on the tiniest, terraced strips of land on steep hillslopes.
  The upgrading of the Moselle into a waterway for big ships in the 1960s has permanently changed the appearance of the river and its banks. Five changes of level between Koblenz and Zell in order to build locks for large ships have changed a riverbed that was narrow in places and wide in others with gently sloping banks into a canal-like waterway that is contained by artificial walls and rock embankments in the areas of the locks.
context_section_description: In the late 1970s, archaeologists discovered the first evidence of possible Roman terracing on the hillsides of the Moselle valley: Land consolidation and the laying out of new farm tracks in vineyards on the Middle Moselle and the upper Lower Moselle exposed the foundations of ancient Celtic houses at the foot of the hillsides. The archaeological sites on the steep hillsides still being managed today could therefore be viewed as evidence of Roman terracing on these slopes in the 3rd century AD.
  No such finds were made between Cochem and Koblenz. The reason for that could be – despite much evidence of Gallo-Roman settlement – a possibly lower level of population, but also the construction of railways and roads in the late 19th century meant that the many vineyards at the foot of old hillside sites in e. g. Hatzenport, Karden, Kobern or Winningen were swept away; possible clues for ancient Celtic sites could thus have been lost without anyone realising. For the late 6th century AD, however, there are written accounts of the early cultivation of steep hillsides for winegrowing in a record of a journey on the Moselle by the ancient writer, Venantius Fortunatus: … where leafy vineyards soar up to bare hill tops / and rich shady leaves cover the dry gravel / here the harvest collects the coloured grapes of the vintners / even on the rocky slope he picks the fruit.
  The demise of Roman civilisation and changes in population during the Migration Period probably left viticulture on the Lower Moselle largely undisturbed. Laws passed by the Frankish kings protected the old established winemakers. For example, there were islands of settlement here until the High Middle Ages in which Moselle Roman was spoken instead of a Frankish language. The still commonly used dialect word for a vineyard terrace - Chur or Kuur (plural:  Chuer, Kuure), derived from cura (Latin for "care") or chorus (Latin for the raised altar area of a church).
  From the 9th century there is a rich record of viniculture for almost all villages on the Lower Moselle. (e. g. Ediger in the year 766, Kobern in 817, Bruttig in 898). Many vineyards were probably still on the level or lower hillsides. The High Middle Ages was the epoch when manual labourers began to build stable terrace walls - based on skills learned in constructing castles in challenging engineering situations on rocky ridges and above steep precipices. The terrace walls were probably mainly of dry stone construction because the amount of mortar required for the irregular rubble stone used would just have been too expensive. Around 30 per cent of the construction costs were estimated by Archbishop Balduin to have been consumed by the firing and transport of the necessary lime for mortar and plaster of his castles in the Middle Rhine-Lower Moselle area. (figs. 16 and 17).
  The rise in population in the Middle Ages, the demand of the trading centres of Cologne, present-day Belgium and the Netherlands and the, compared with today, high per-capita consumption of wine must have led to an expansion of the winegrowing areas and associated terracing needed. In deeds of ownership and enfeoffment of the time there are even sites managed today that could have been terraced as early as the 12th century. Gepirg pringt edlern wein ("steep slopes produce better wine") was an adage recorded in a farming guide of the 14th century. Gebirge or Gepirg was the name given to steep locations on the valley sides until the 19th century. Phases of closure, abandonment and ruination of terraces followed plagues, war or climatic changes.
  In the late 19th century the terracing of valley sides along the Lower Moselle – occasionally almost to the hilltops – probably reached its greatest extent. The successive terracing uphill also occurred especially in the terroirs, which from the earliest times were known for highly sought after wines that commanded high prices. In order to produce greater quantities, terraces were also laid in the side valleys and on less favourable sites. Around 1880 the Province of Koblenz still named around 2,500 
caption: 15. Reconstruction of an old terrace wall: l. to r. Gabions (rubblestone in wire baskets), mortared wall with new rubble stones, surviving section of dry stone wall from the rocks of the same hillside: Niederfeller Kahllay
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