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Like many towns in the Mosel valley, BERNKASTEL-KUES , which is 50km downstream from Trier, was originally two completely separate communities facing each other across the river. It attracts its fair share of coach-tripping tourists and can get pretty busy in summer, but it well worth a visit, both for its sights and its wines.

In Bernkastel, on the south side of the Mosel, the main attraction is the half-timbered, gently sloping Marktplatz , which really does live up to tourist brochure hyperbole, with a stately coffee-and-cream-coloured Renaissance Rathaus as the focal point. Next door is the Spitzhäuschen , an absurdly narrow half-timbered building with a steep grey slate-pitched roof, which now houses a tiny Weinstube. In the middle of the vineyards above Bernkastel stands Burg Landshut , a thirteenth-century castle which went up in flames in 1693 and has been a ruin ever since, but from which you get panoramic views of the town and around.

In Kues, on the other side of the river, the bank is lined with the houses and villas of nineteenth-century vineyard owners. Fronting the river is the Gothic St Nikolaus-Hospital (Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 2-6pm, Sat & Sun 9am-noon; free; guided tours, subject to a minimum of five visitors, Tues 10.30am, Fri 3pm; DM5/¬2.50), also known as the Cusanusstift , a poorhouse founded by the town's most famous son, the fifteenth-century theologian and philosopher Nikolaus Cusanus, who pursued a highly successful ecclesiastical career, latterly as a cardinal in Rome. The buildings were constructed to house 33 destitute old men - a symbolic figure representing each year of Christ's life - and have maintained the same function ever since. In the heavily ornate Kapelle there's a vivid mid-fifteenth century Crucifixion triptych by the Cologne narrative painter known as the Master of the Life of the Virgin. The Bibliothek , which contains 314 ninth- to fifteenth-century manuscripts collected by Cusanus, is considered one of the most valuable private libraries in the world, but is only accessible on the twice-weekly guided tours. Also within the complex is the Mosel-Weinmuseum (mid-April to Oct Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; Nov to mid-April Tues-Sun 2-5pm; DM3/¬1.50), which features a large collection of wine presses, vessels and other related objects. There's also a Vinothek where local wines can be sampled and bought.