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Despite its imposing setting at the point where the Nahe joins the Rhine, BINGEN is generally regarded as something of a poor relation of Rüdesheim on the latter's opposite bank. Nonetheless, its star has been in the ascendant of late because of the burgeoning interest in one of the great female figures of the European Middle Ages, Abbess Hildegard of Bingen .

The extensive programme of events marking the 900th anniversary of Hildegard's birth brought a permanent memorial in the form of a wide-ranging display on her life and career in the new Historisches Museum am Strom (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; DM6/¬3), which occupies a converted electricity station towards the western end of the town waterfront. Although presented in an informative manner, it suffers from a lack of any tangible objects associated with Hildegard herself. However, it has obtained on loan from the Diözesanmuseum in Mainz two exquisite carvings of wild vines and hops by the Master of Naumburg, which are the earliest botanically accurate representations in Western art and postdate Hildegard by only a few decades. The museum also has a major archeological exhibit, a collection of 66 surgical instruments (many of them remarkably similar to those used nowadays) of a Roman army doctor of the second century AD, who was probably based at the fort in Bingen. It includes a complete set of implements for performing operations on the skull, as well as no fewer than thirteen scalpels.

The main historic monument in the town centre is the Basilika St Martin overlooking the Nahe, which is actually two churches in one: the original building, an early fifteenth-century collegiate church, and the Barbarabau , a double-aisled extension tacked on later the same century to serve for parish use. In addition, an eleventh-century crypt survives from a previous church on the site. The furnishings are remarkably disparate. In the main church, the side altars have beautiful statues of SS Barbara and Catherine which are contemporary with the architecture, while the pulpit and ciborium are Baroque, the high altar unashamedly avant-garde. The Barbarabau houses a touching Gothic relief of The Lamentation and a colourful Mannerist triptych of scenes from the life of the Virgin.

Towering high above Bingen is Burg Klopp , a former castle of the Archbishop-Electors of Mainz. The original fortress was destroyed in 1689 and the ruins were blown up in 1711, so that what can be seen today is very largely a nineteenth-century replica. Housed within the tower, which commands a marvellous view over the Rhine to the Taunus, is the Heimatmuseum (April-Oct Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 2-5pm; DM1/¬0.50), which contains more local finds from the Roman era. Another good vantage point is the Rupertsberg above Bingerbrück, the suburb on the opposite side of the Nahe. This is the site of the Kloster where Hildegard was abbess, but unfortunately only the cellars plus scanty remains of the church still survive. Although rarely accessible to visitors, the town's best-known monument is the Mäuseturm , a former customs tower on an island in the Rhine immediately north of Bingerbrück in which, according to grisly legend, Archbishop Hatto of Mainz was devoured alive by mice after having burned all the local beggars during a famine.