Weinhaus Heilig Grab
Tradition • Wine tavern • Beer garden • Guest rooms
Our wine tavern is the oldest in Boppard
It has been in our family for more than 200 years. You can enjoy the wine from our vineyards in our traditional „Stube“ or lounge bar or you can sit outside in the courtyard, under the old chestnut trees. We are happy to arrange wine-tasting sessions and guided tours (in English) of our wine cellars for groups and coach parties. Bottled wines are also available to take home.
All our rooms are modern and complete with private toilet, shower and TV.
We look forward to welcoming you!
„Heilig Grab“
In one of Boppard’s quieter side alleys you can read the pub sign „Holy Sepulchre“, a rather strange name for a wine tavern, even in the light of the various drastic portrayals of Christ in the winepress that you can see in some of the villages along the Moselle.
Where does the name „Holy Sepulchre“ come from?
We must go back in history more than one hundred years. – In the Catholic Church no real Mass is said on Good Friday. Instead the priest uncovers the body of Christ and worships it in a special ritual. At the end of the service he carries the cross to a side altar or to a side chapel and lays it on the floor. During the day the faithful come to worship it there. This is called „going to the Holy Sepulchre“.
In Boppard it was an old tradition to do this in the Church of the Carmelite Monastery on the Rhine, an interesting Gothic building without a tower, still well worth a visit today. It was the custom that early in the afternoon of Good Friday first the young, then the women and later after their work the men came to pray here, some for a longer time, some for a shorter time.
Now, not far from the church, a wine tavern had been opened which soon got a reputation for its good and reasonably priced wines. Holy Week came round again with the tradition of „going to the Holy Sepulchre“. The decent women of Boppard found it strange that that year their husbands came home to supper very late. When questioned as to where they had been they gave the agreed answer: „At the Holy Sepulchre of course! Can’t one pray a little longer?“
But soon the daughters of Eve found out that the visit to the Holy Sepulchre had been only short whereas the time of „prayer“ at the wine tavern close by all the longer. After that, whenever the dear husband came home later than usual, his beloved would greet him with the words: „You have been to the „Holy Sepulchre“ again, haven’t you?“
From that time onwards the name stuck and the locals called the wine tavern by this name even when its owners moved it to a street less prone to flooding nearer the station.