Location and landscape
Auen is a municipality in the Nahe region with a cadastral area of 271 hectares. The landscape lies in a valley surrounded by wooded slopes and slopes covered with vineyards.
Geological structure
The Auen valley is traversed by the Saar-Saale trough from a north-easterly to a south-westerly direction. It separates Rotliegend formations located to the south from Devonian formations in the north. In the trough, thick terrestrial-lacustrine sediments occur; in the area of Auen, sandstone deposits from the Rotliegend are found. Several exposures provided petrified wood from the Perm, while Devonian exposures contained petrified plants and small fossil organisms.
Viticulture
In the wine-growing register of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kaulenberg and Römerstich are listed as single vineyards within the cadastral area of Auen. In the 19th century, Auen developed into an agriculturally based settlement shaped by viticulture in the Nahe region; the vineyards served as an additional source of income.
History
Auen is documented in a confirmation charter of the Archbishop of Mainz, Adalbert, from the year 1128. The charter mentions the Willigis Chapel, the construction of which is dated by the municipality to around 980 to 990. Archaeological investigations also documented a grape pit among finds attributed by the municipality to the La Tène period.
