Rheinbreitbach is located at the north end of the Middle Rhine and at the southern edge of the Siebengebirge.

In the Middle Ages the town was surrounded by a wall and moat and sported four fortified gates.

The mining of copper-ore and subsequent extraction of the copper is attested by various finds since mediaeval times in near the Virneberg, in Breite Heide.

The monasteries of Marienstatt and Schwarz-Rheindorf also grew wine here, as did the churches of St. Aposteln, St. Severin, St. Maria ad Gradus, St. Gereon and St. Martin.

Also the local gentry, the, Freiherrn von Breidbach and even the Counts of Berg owned vineyards here.

The populace was employed on these estates as tenants, the so-called halfen, who owed half or a third of the produce to their landlords, the clergy and the nobility.