Boppard (German pronunciation: [ˈbɔpaʁt] ⓘ), formerly also spelled Boppart, is a town and municipality (since the 1976 inclusion of 9 neighbouring villages, Ortsbezirken) in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, lying in the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This vista gets its name from the way in which the Rhine can be seen from here, or rather the way in which it cannot be seen: hills block out most of the view of the river itself so that visitors can only see four apparently separate patches of water, rather like four lakes.

Since 1976, Boppard has consisted of ten Ortsbezirke, a special kind of municipal internal division found in some cities and towns in Rhineland-Palatinate (and also Hesse).

In the course of Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul and the ensuing Roman settlement of the lands on the Rhine's left bank, there also followed the founding of Vicus Baudobriga (also Bodobriga or Bontobrica) on the way into the Mühltal (valley).

Until 1309, Boppard was a free imperial city, and as such was often frequented by the German kings, who would then reside at the so-called Royal Estate.

[3] A bronze seal-die dating from 1228–36, now in the British Museum, proclaims the independence of Boppard under the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Its excellent state of preservation provides a tantalizing glimpse of the medieval town, complete with Romanesque cathedral and city walls.

In 1309 and 1312, Emperor Heinrich VII pledged Boppard along with its outlying lands to his brother, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier.

The Elector managed to win over the town nobility by taking them into his service and giving them jobs in administration, but the arrangement still did not sit well with the townsfolk.

After Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher defeated the French troops, the victorious powers shared the administration of the territories under them.

In 1815 the Congress of Vienna assigned the town along with the Rhine's left bank as far upstream as Bingerbrück to the Kingdom of Prussia.

The physician Dr. Heusner and the local businessman Jacob Mallmann opened the Mühlbad (baths) at Remigiusplatz (square) in 1841.

Under Jacob's successor, Josef Syrée, who between 1848 and 1892 was Boppard's mayor, the town developed into a tourism centre and a spa.

The Catholic middle and lower classes and the liberal, upper-class newcomers often found themselves at odds with each other, and this broke out into the open in 1872 with the Kulturkampf, which lasted several years.

As the representative of the Catholic middle and lower classes, the long-time dean Berger, who also enjoyed some fame as a poet, was the mayor's opponent.

Because the old Säuerlingsturm, a tower that had been part of the town's mediaeval fortifications, was standing in the way, it had to be dismantled in 1906–1908, and it was then reassembled – albeit with thinner walls – north of its old location.

For Boppard, this meant that as of 28 July 1970, the town found itself, along with Bad Salzig, Buchholz, Herschwiesen, Hirzenach, Holzfeld, Oppenhausen, Rheinbay, Udenhausen and Weiler in a new Verbandsgemeinde.

With the promise that this money would be spent mainly on the outlying centres, eight of the ten still self-administering municipalities – including Boppard itself – came round to seeing the merger as the right way to proceed.

This led the now Ortsteil of Bad Salzig to appeal to the State Constitutional Court – on the same day – and file suit to have the Interior Ministry’s regulation overturned.

[9] The German blazon reads: In Gold ein rot bezungter und rot bewehrter schwarzer Adler mit silbernen Krallen, belegt mit einem Herzschild, darin in Silber ein rotes Balkenkreuz.

This was not easy from an heraldic point of view, for only two of the constituent communities, Boppard and Bad Salzig, had borne arms before amalgamation.

Thus it was decided that the new coat of arms should be charged with the Imperial Eagle, like the old arms, but that the eagle should have an inescutcheon on its breast, itself charged with Saint George's Cross, ironically the heraldic device formerly borne by the Electorate of Trier, against whose hegemony the townsfolk had once fought so hard.

Boppard fosters partnerships with the following places: The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments: Over on the other side of the Rhine stand two castles, Burg Liebenstein and Burg Sterrenberg, known as the Feindliche Brüder ("Adversarial Brothers") after a German legend that arose in the 16th century, and the pilgrimage centre of Kamp-Bornhofen with its mediaeval monastery.

What follows expands somewhat on the entries in the Directory of Cultural Monuments: The Vierseenblick mentioned above offers a rather obscured view of the Rhine.

Furthermore, Bubberder Platt also features sporadic Yiddish influences, for until the time of the Third Reich, Boppard had a considerable Jewish community.

With 75 hectares (190 acres) of planted vineyards, Boppard is the biggest winegrowing centre in the Middle Rhine wine region.

Outside the historic town centre lie many commercial concerns, such as the Boppard-headquartered manufacturer BOMAG, with some 1,200 employees, the cosmetics enterprise Sebapharma GmbH & Co. kg and a software business.

In the outlying centre of Buchholz, furthermore, is an Autobahn interchange onto the A 61, which can be reached by heavy vehicles and those hauling hazardous goods over Landesstraße (State Road) 210 (Simmerner Straße) and by vehicles up to 10.5 t and long-distance buses over Landesstraße 209 (Buchholzer Straße) from the main centre.

One goes back to a donation made by knightly and noble families in Boppard in the mid 13th century, and the other goes back to 1349 when the Boppard Schöffen (roughly "lay jurists") families founded the church brotherhood, or Schöffen brotherhood with the Kleines Hospital ("Little Hospital").

In November 2008, a new Stadthalle – literally "town hall", but actually an event venue – was opened in Boppard, right on the marketplace.