Beilstein is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the CochemZell district in RhinelandPalatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem, whose seat is in the likenamed town.
The small village has one of the best preserved historical appearances on the Moselle and is thus also sometimes known as a miniature Rothenburg ob der Tauber or Dornröschen der Mosel ("Sleeping Beauty of the Moselle"). Towering above the village, which despite its small size is built to look much like a town, are the ruins of Metternich Castle, which once belonged to the likenamed noble family.
The village is a pilgrimage site, for it is here that the "Miraculous Black Madonna" is displayed in the Baroque Saint Joseph's Monastery Church. This is a statue of Spanish origin from the 12th or 13th century, left behind by the Spaniards after their short time as Beilstein's lords after the Thirty Years' War and shortly thereafter taken to France, only to be brought back to Beilstein in 1950.
The organ in the monastery church was built by Balthasar König from Münstereifel/Cologne in 1738. Restoration work in 2002 gave the instrument back its original sound and character.
Each year in July and August, the Beilsteiner Märchensommer ("Beilstein FairyTale Summer") is held, at which the marionette theatre from Cochem produces fairy tales at the winegrowing museum. Always opening and closing the series of events is a traditional version of the Brothers Grimm’s "Sleeping Beauty", in keeping with one of the village's nicknames.
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