Bingen was the starting point for the Via Ausonia , a Roman military road that linked the town with Trier. Bingen is well known for, among other things, the story about the Mouse Tower , in which allegedly the Bishop of Mainz Hatto was eaten by mice. It was also the birthplace of Saint Hildegard von Bingen , an important polymath , abbess , mystic and musician , one of the most influential medieval composers and one of the earliest Western composers whose music is widely preserved and performed.
Bingen am Rhein was also the birthplace of the celebrated poet Stefan George , along with many other influential figures. Bingen is situated just southeast of the Rhine knee by the Bingen Forest Binger Wald — actually a low mountain range , which rises west of the town. Rising to the north on the other side of the Rhine is the Rheingau range, the Taunus 's southwesternmost outcrop. In Bingen the river Nahe empties into the Rhine Gorge.
The Rochusberg mountain is nearly completely surrounded by the town site. Even before the Romans came, people lived here, because the location favoured transport, being at the confluence of the Nahe and Rhine Rivers, and the Rhine's entry into the gorge. The first settlement seems to have been a Celtic Gaulish settlement by the name of Binge — meaning "rift". There the Romans erected a wooden bridge across the Nahe and constructed a bridgehead castrum.
A Roman Mithraic monument, which included a mutilated sculpture representing the nativity of Mithra from a rock, was discovered in Bingen; one of its inscriptions is dated The presbyter Aetherius of Bingen founded sometime between and a firmly Christian community.
Bearing witness to this time is Aetherius's gravestone, which can still be seen in Saint Martin's Basilica. The inhabitants of Bingen strove time and again for independence, which led in through disputes between the Archbishop of Mainz and the Emperor to destruction. In the 13th century, Bingen was a member of the Rhenish League of Towns. The building of Klopp Castle Burg Klopp in the mid 13th century could well be seen as being tied in with this development. A last attempt was the town's unsuccessful participation in the German Peasants' War in From the Archbishop the Cathedral Chapter of Mainz acquired the town in two halves in and Until the late 18th century Bingen remained under its administration.
