- Treis-Karden
The former collegiate and now parish church of St. Castor with its mighty towers still dominates the village today.
The former collegiate and now parish church of St. Castor, with its mighty towers, still dominates the image of the town today. For art-historically interested visitors to Karden, the eastern part of the church - the choir with apse, flanking towers, and crossship - which was begun in 1183, offers the richness of architectural forms, colors, and ornaments of Romanesque architecture. The main nave with its two side aisles was completed around the year 1300 in the style of early Gothic. In 1699, the court architect of Kurtrier, Sebastiani, increased the West Tower by two stories and added the baroque helmet with lantern on top. Representing the rich interior decoration of the church, the late Gothic altar shrine with the adoration of the Three Kings - fired from local clay around 1420 - and the three-keyboard baroque organ by Johann Michael Stumm from 1728 should be mentioned. Only the south wing of the Gothic cloister has been preserved.
The collegiate church is located in the midst of the historic collegiate district of Karden. The district of Karden boasts a history of more than 2000 years.
Treveri, Romans, and Franks successively inhabited the Moselle valley and the heights of Eifel and Hunsrück.
As early as around 350 a.m., Castor, a priest from Aquitaine (southern France), founded the first Christian community here in the Roman VICUS CARDENA. During the Middle Ages and until the secularization in the year 1802, the provost of the collegiate chapter of St. Castor administered one-fifth of the old archdiocese of Trier as archdeacon from Karden. For the art-historically interested visitor, the collegiate district offers many remarkable houses.
Directly next to the collegiate church is the collegiate museum. The museum building itself is a document of history. Built in 1238, it is part of the collegiate district. The numerous exhibits document about 2000 years of local history with interesting and noteworthy finds from Celtic, Roman, and Frankish times. Additionally, treasures of the former collegiate chapter of St. Castor are displayed.
