Location and Landscape
Kapsweyer is a border community in the midst of designated nature conservation areas between the Haard edge and the Bienwald. The municipality includes fertile hilly countryside. The highest elevation is the 181-metre-high Gähberg.
Vine Growing on Lerchenberg
The Lerchenberg is a hilly single vineyard site at around 158 to 185 metres above sea level. The soils consist of loam and sandy loam; the register of vineyard sites lists 24.5 hectares of planted vineyard area there. The site belongs to the large vineyard site of Guttenberg in the area of the Southern Wine Route of the wine-growing region Pfalz, a protected designation of origin for wine.
Historical Development
The beginnings of settlement in Kapsweyer are dated in the municipal chronicle to the period between about 600 and 750, when hamlets were established in the Bienwald. On 5 February 1368, a charter by Emperor Charles IV was issued for Kapsweyer and Steinfeld. For the year 1744, the chronicle records fighting between pandours and French troops on the Lerchenberg during the War of the Austrian Succession.
