Kaiserswerth

[3] About the year 700 the monk Saint Suitbert founded a Benedictine abbey at Werth, a river island that formed an important crossing point of the Rhine.

The Kaiserpfalz which is a general term for a temporary seat of the Holy Roman Emperor was built at an unknown date but before the year 1016.

In 1062, the archbishop of Cologne, Anno II, kidnapped the underage German King Heinrich IV from here and in this way obtained the unofficial regency of the Holy Roman Empire.

The eastern branch of the Rhine around the island silted up connecting Kaiserswerth to the east bank of the river.

In 1273, the emperor pledged Kaiserswerth to the Archbishop of Cologne forming a de facto enclave within the Duchy of Jülich-Berg.

The French reoccupied Kaiserswerth in 1701 during the War of the Spanish Succession and the Allies laid siege to it again in 1702.

[4] In the 19th century Kaiserswerth was chiefly noted for its deaconess clinic, founded by local pastor Theodor Fliedner.