The Ruhr flows peacefully along the half-timbered houses of Monschau by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

Monschau is a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located at an altitude of about 420 meters in the city region of Aachen. It lies on the edge of the Eifel at the headwaters of the Ruhr. The towns of Simmerath, Schleiden, Hellenthal, Roetgen and the Belgian town of Eupen are close by.

Monschau is located in the narrow and deep valley of the Ruhr, barely four kilometers from the Belgian border. Monschau was first mentioned in 1198 as Mons Ioci. The castle probably originated in the 13th century and was founded by the Duke of Limburg as Castrum in Munioie. In 1352 the place received city rights. In 1433, Montjoie passed to the Duchy of Gulik.

As a result of the Thirty Years' War, the town was darkened by the influx of Protestant German-speaking refugees seeking religious freedom. Many of them worked in the cloth industry. Protestants also came from Aachen, after being persecuted there in 1616.

All of this led to a flourishing cloth industry in Monschau, in which Arnold Schmitz, who had fled from Aachen, played a role. Johann Heinrich Scheibler, a native of the Bergisches Land region, also helped the textile industry to flourish. The famous Rotes Haus dates back to this period (1760).

During the French era Montjoie was a cantonal headquarters in the Ruhrgebiet. It was only in 1918 that the town officially changed its name from Montjoie to the German pronunciation of it, under imperial orders: Monschau.

Monschau in 2020 is primarily a tourist cent