Oppenheimer Kellerlabyrinth

Cellars of Oppenheim

Useful Information

Location:	Merianstr. 2a, 55276 Oppenheim. Oppenheim, at the town hall on the historic market, Merianstraße 2. (49.852816, 8.355086)
Open:	APR to OCT Thu-Sun. NOV to MAR Thu-Sat. Times in online booking systems. [2023]
Fee:	Adults EUR 11, Children (7-12) EUR 7.50, Children (0-6) free, Disabled EUR 7.50. [2023]
Classification:	Cellar
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	T=8-9 °C.
Guided tours:	L=420 m, Ar=6000m², D=60 min.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Oppenheimer Kellerlabyrinth, Tel: +49-6133-4909-14, Tel: +49-6133-4909-19. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1226	Oppenheim declared a Freie Reichsstadt.
1645	cellars mentioned in a description of the town by Merian.

Description

The Oppenheimer Kellerlabyrinth (cellar labyrinth of Oppenheim) is a complex system of cellars inside the loess layers below the old medieval town. The complex system of connected cellars has numerous levels of passages, most of them connected in a weird and complex way. Most of the passages are forgotten, there is no survey or map, and the purpose is long forgotten. The passages are too complex to be useful storage cellars.

There is a rather logical theory, which says that the rapidly growing commerce, after the town was declared a Freie Reichsstadt in 1226, caused an urgent demand for safe storage space. But unfortunately the town is located between the Rhine river and the steep vineyards, so there was no room to build above ground. The merchants started to dig cellars below their houses in a rather uncoordinated way. The cool cellars were ideal to store food, and even the mined material was sold.

The underground below Oppenheim is composed of an up to eight metre thick layer of loess. The loess is not a rock, it is just very fine sand which was deposited by the Ice Age wind which transported the dust of rock which were destryed by the glaciers. The fine dust was altered by weathering, so it is now a mixture of sand and clay. Normally we would think sand is unsuitable to dig holes. But loess is different, it is possible to scratch holes into the sand, which will be absolutely stable. Both the sand and the clay were useful, the clay was used to pave the road in the town. However, there is one drawback, water oozing into the sand could cause a collapse. Leaky water or sewage pipes are a great danger for the cellars, and as a result for the buildings above the cellars. When the caves collapse dolines form on the surface above.