MARKSBURG

Marksburg Castle is the only hilltop castle on the Middle Rhine that has never been destroyed!

Here between Bingen and Koblenz, an area that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is or was a castle on average every 2.5 km - over 40 are still more or less preserved! Many can be seen romantically on the banks or on the heights and several can be visited. However, the vast majority of these castles are “new buildings” from the 19th and 20th centuries. Almost all the castles had been reduced to ruins - either through destruction, mostly by the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War, or by the troops of Louis XIV in the War of the Palatinate Succession in 1689, or simply through abandonment and subsequent decay.

From the 19th century onwards, many ruins were rebuilt or extended in the age of Romanticism, e.g. Rheinstein, Reichenstein, Stahleck, Sooneck, Katz und Maus and Lahneck.

Stolzenfels, within sight of Braubach on the opposite side of the Rhine, is also an important example of Romanticism - but it is no longer a real castle. Very few exceptions, such as Pfalzgrafenstein and Marksburg Castle, have survived the ages undamaged and today allow us a glimpse into earlier centuries.

The value and significance of Marksburg Castle lies above all in its complete preservation as a medieval fortification.

The imposing fortress with buildings mainly dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, with its keep, several buildings, kennels and bastions, stands on a rocky cone 90 meters above the romantic little town of Braubach and today offers a journey into the Middle Ages - also through typical interiors worth seeing, such as the castle kitchen, knights' hall, bower, chapel, armoury, wine cellar, battlements and tower rooms!