Odernheim am Glan is an old town in the Pfalz, in the middle of one of the largest wine growing areas in Germany. It's a bit off the beaten track these days, but in the Middle Ages was much better known as being close to the monastery of Disibodenberg. The monastery had an attached hermitage for nuns, and it's here that Hildegard of Bingen was educated. Hildegard is one of the most famous and earliest of the medieval German female mystics. It was at the Disibodenberg that she had the first of her visions, which were eventually described in her work "Scivias". In 1147 she left the Disibodenberg, for reasons which are long lost, but were probably to do with the lack of space for the growing convent, and set up a new convent on the Rupertsberg, where the River Nahe flows into the Rhein. The monastery is now a ruin, but the bell in the Town Hall is reputed to have come from the monastery.
The town lies on the River Glan, which winds its way to the Nahe, and thence to the Rhein. The weir which provides a perfect mirror for the mill will have held the water back to power the original water mill - as you can see by the roof of the low building, it now uses a more modern form of renewable energy!
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