River Tunnel

Weilburg is a small town built around a castle on the River Lahn, 48 km east of Koblenz. The region was an important source of iron ore, and mining is the principal topic illustrated in the town’s museum, although it also has remains and photographs of a Zeppelin airship which crashed nearby in 1910.

When the River Lahn was made navigable a 195 m tunnel, the Schiffstunnel, was driven through a hillside at Weilburg to cut off a bend. The Lahn navigation was never profitable, and the traffic that it attracted was within ten years taken away by the railway from Koblenz to Geissen, but the tunnel and the locks on the river remain in use for leisure cruising. The tunnel was renovated in 1977. It is the only tunnel in Europe on a river navigation.