Stahleck Castle
Encyclopedia
Stahleck Castle is a 12th-century fortified castle in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley
at Bacharach
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It stands on a crag approximately above sea level on the left bank of the river at the mouth of the Steeg valley, approximately south of Koblenz
, and offers a commanding view of the Lorelei
valley. Its name means "impregnable castle on a crag", from the Middle High German
words stahel (steel) and ecke (here: crag). It has a water-filled partial moat
, a rarity in Germany. Built on the orders of the Archbishop of Cologne, it was destroyed in the late 17th century but rebuilt in the 20th and is now a hostel
.
resided there. It is uncertain when the present castle was built to replace an earlier fortification; perhaps around 1135. It was the first large castle north of Bingen
and Rüdesheim
.
A "Gozwin von Stalecke" is first mentioned in charters in 1120/21. This was Goswin von Falkenburg, who is also referred to in 1135 by the Latin translation "Cozwinus de Staelechae" and was the first attested holder of the castle in fief. He was a member of a Main-Frankish family and had come into possession of the castle through marriage to Luitgard von Hengebach, the widow of Heinrich I of Katzenelnbogen
, who died in 1102. From then on he called himself Goswin von Stahleck.
, sister of King Conrad III of Germany
. After receiving Stahleck Castle in fief from his brother in law in 1140, in 1140 he was additionally granted the County of Palatinate by Rhine. This made him one of the greatest lords of the Holy Roman Empire
and the Four Valley Region, which consisted of the settlements of Bacharach, Steeg (now part of Bacharach), Diebach and Manubach
plus the castles of Stahleck, Fürstenberg
and Stahlberg, and made Stahleck the centre of power of the heart of what later became the Rhineland territory of the Counts Palatine. They developed Bacharach into a trading town, among other things for the wine
trade, and the castle was thus used to enforce payment of duties
. When he went on the Second Crusade
, Conrad made Hermann his regent
.
After Hermann's death in 1156, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa bestowed the title of Count Palatine on his half-brother Conrad of Hohenstaufen
. After the death of his remaining son in 1189, Conrad's only heir was his daughter Agnes. So that the castle and the title could remain in the family, that year King Henry VI
commuted the fief from a personal to a hereditary one. In the future this led to repeated conflicts between the Counts Palatine and the See of Cologne, since Stahleck was a possession of the Electoral Archbishop and not the king's to modify.
It was her father's wish for Agnes to marry King Philip II of France
, but instead when Conrad was away from the castle in January or February 1194, she secretly married Henry the Elder of Brunswick
, son of his enemy the Welf Duke Henry the Lion
, to whom she had previously been engaged; the marriage, performed by Johann I, Archbishop of Triers
, is known as the Stahleck Marriage or the Bacharach Marriage. After Conrad's death, Henry succeeded him as Count Palatine and so came into possession of the castle. However, in 1212 he renounced the title and the rights associated with it in favour of his son Henry the Younger
. When the latter died young and childless in 1214, his younger sister Agnes
inherited Stahleck. The non-allodial
remainder of the County reverted to the Crown and was subsequently bestowed on the Bavarian Duke Ludwig I
of the House of Wittelsbach.
In order to secure possession also of the castle and the overseership of Bacharach, Ludwig I arranged a marriage in 1222 between his son Otto
and Agnes. Under Otto (Otto II) in 1243, the long-running conflict with the Archbishopric of Cologne was settled, and he received Fürstenberg and Stahlberg Castles as additional fiefs.
Ludwig I transferred his primary residence to Heidelberg
, so that from then on, Stahleck was used only occasionally and was overseen by count
s, who called themselves "Ritter (Knight) von Stahleck". From the 15th century on, it was administered by bailiff
s. However, although the castle was no longer the administrative centre of the Palatinate, important gatherings of the nobility continued to take place there into the 15th century, including the election of Ludwig IV
as King of Germany in May 1314 and the wedding of Emperor Charles IV
and Anna
, only daughter of Rudolf II, Count Palatine, on 4 March 1349. In addition, the castle was used several times during the 14th century as a pledge. In December 1314, to cover the costs of his election, Ludwig IV pledged it for 58,300 pounds of Heller
s to John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia
, and his uncle Baldwin, Electoral Archbishop of Triers. In July 1328, they were required to surrender Stahleck and also Stahlberg and Braunshorn Castles as security for a fine payable to Countess Loretta of Sponheim
. The castle was thus administered by Count Wilhelm I of Katzenelnbogen as regent until the entire sum of 11,000 pounds had been paid. The castle was also opened for military use to Gerlach of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz, in 1346.
In 1353, the Palatinate was divided and Stahleck Castle passed to Rupert the Younger, after which it was incorporated into the fortifications around the town of Bacharach. In late 1400, Rupert's son, also named Rupert, celebrated there his election as King of Germany and Rome after the deposition of King Wenceslaus of Luxembourg
. In 1408, Rupert hosted a banquet for the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire
, but after that Stahleck gradually lost its importance for the empire. In 1442 Ludwig IV, Count Palatine, held a reception and electoral banquet there for King Frederick of Habsburg
as he was en route to Aachen
to be crowned Emperor, but during the 15th and 16th centuries the castle sank into insignificance.
. On 4 October 1620, it and the town of Bacharach were taken by Spanish
troops commanded by Ambrogio Spinola, but the Spaniards were evicted by Protestant Swedes
on 9 January 1632. The castle was heavily damaged during the siege leading up to its recapture. A copper engraving in Matthäus Merian
's 1646 Topographia Germaniae depicts the battle.
In July 1635, Imperial troops under Matthias Gallas
, Count of Campo, successfully besieged Stahleck. They were evicted four years later, in July 1639, by Saxe-Weimar
soldiers, but the castle was then occupied by Bavaria
n troops in March 1640. They stayed only a short time, and after their withdrawal the Saxe-Weimar troops reoccupied the castle and the town. In autumn 1640, after a 14-day siege, Spanish troops once more took their place.
In September 1644, the castle and the town were taken by French
soldiers after a 10-day siege; the following month, Cologne troops attacked them and forced them to retreat to the castle with heavy losses. The Cologne commander, Constantin von Nievenheimb, therefore ordered the bombardment and "more or less ruination" of the castle, but did not attempt to capture it. The French soldiers remained until 24 July 1650 but had to vacate the castle under the terms of the Peace of Westphalia
, which returned it to the Palatinate and Count Palatine Karl Ludwig
. In 1666, he had the castle repaired and made some alterations: he greatly changed the interior of the palas and between it and the northern rampart
built a massive new building with a Fachwerk half-timbered upper storey. An inscribed stone tablet on the palas commemorates his rebuilding of the castle.
During the War of the Palatine Succession, the castle was decisively destroyed, like most of the fortifications in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Its commander, von Dachenhausen, surrendered it to French troops on 11 October 1688, but on 15 March 1689 they blew it up. The explosion completely destroyed both the ring wall and the keep
, the residential buildings burned out in the resulting fire, and debris from the explosion destroyed the Gothic
Werner Chapel at the foot of the castle hill. The castle was so heavily damaged that it was not rebuilt. Under the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick
, the ruin reverted to the Palatinate, where it remained until the dissolution of the County at the end of the 18th century.
in 1794, in 1801 the Treaty of Lunéville
awarded the ruined castle to the French; in 1804 they offered it for sale. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna
resulted in its passing into the possession of the Kingdom of Prussia
. In 1828 the then Crown Prince Frederick William
acquired it in order to give it to his wife Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria
; she was a Wittelsbach princess. In association with a visit by her in the 1850s, large parts of the toppling walls were cleared, and the rubble spread over the courtyard
and used to fill the moat. All that remained was the wall of the palas on the courtyard side, the ring wall on the Steeg valley side to the height of the chemin de ronde
and a small piece of the inner or shield wall
.
The ruined castle became well known among romantics and nationalists and was often depicted in the 19th century. Beginning in 1907, Axel Delmar had plans for a home for artists in the ruins of the castle, but the Prussian royal family refused to sell the site.
s, began only in 1909, after the ruin had been transferred from the Prussian Crown to the Rhenish Association for Landmark Preservation and Landscape Protection. The Association was able to raise the 5,000 mark purchase price through donations. Work was interrupted by World War I
, and the castle suffered further vandalism and decay. In 1924 Richard Blankenhorn, the owner of the villa above the castle, wished to start a business in the ruins, but there was no response for 5 years to his enquiry concerning a lease.
Early in 1925 the decision was taken to construct a youth hostel at the castle. Firm plans were made in March of that year. The Association contracted with the architect Ernst Stahl to "build in the ruin, in the spirit of the old buildings and making use of the old walls, a building which [would] fit well into the landscape". Financing of the initial work was ensured by an endowment of 50,000 reichsmarks.
Stahleck became the Association's prestige project. The intention was to completely rebuild the castle. Stahl based his designs on historical models and appended them to remaining structures, but changed his plans again after ancient, previously unknown building foundations came to light in excavations beginning in August 1925. The excavations and the attendant repeated surveying of the site delayed the start of building to late summer 1925. The first building, the longhouse, was intended as a hostel for boys. On the first floor, executed in Fachwerk, were a flat for the hostel manager and an adjacent dormitory with washroom. On the ground floor, built in crushed stone, were the kitchen and a day-room, while the top floor, which has dormer
s on the courtyard side, housed further sleeping and washing space. The design adhered as far as possible to the use of space in the old castle. An old cellar at the east corner of the site was rebuilt and roofed over in reinforced concrete to make a viewing terrace. Further excavations took place parallel to the construction work, and recovered stones were used as building material in rebuilding the ring wall and the foundation of the keep.
The official dedication of the youth hostel took place on 12–13 June 1926 and was followed by a second building phase, from autumn 1926 to July 1927, in which the tower building, with two wings at right angles and a turret at the angle, was built as a girls' hostel on the foundations of two Fachwerk buildings against the shield wall. The ground floor consisted of a large day-room; on the first floor were a large dormitory, washrooms and living and sleeping space for matrons. Further sleeping space was under the single-pitched roof, and in addition there was a 4-bed room inside the turret. Rebuilding of the entire ring wall and the shield wall lasted until 1927.
Once open, the youth hostel was almost always oversubscribed, leading to problems with the water supply. Insufficient water frequently led to a complete ban on washing. The problem was alleviated by tapping a new source of water on the western hillside.
In 1929, the keep, with two holes in it from the explosion, was finally stabilised to a height of 3 m. The hole on the east side was used as an entrance to the tower. Also in 1929, the day-rooms were redecorated with dado
s and murals. In 1930–31, the ground floor of the ruined palas was rebuilt, to make a dining hall, a dishwashing room, and a flat for the hostel manager. In 1932, work was done on clearing the rubble from the moat.
, the Bund Deutscher Mädel, and both the SA
and the SS, Gauleiter
Gustav Simon
gave the dedicatory address. Stahleck became one of 27 Jugendburgen (youth castles), to be used for indoctrination of teenagers and young adults. Between 1937 and early 1938, the turrets on the shield wall were built and its chemin de ronde roofed over. A visit by Rudolf Hess
in June 1938 prompted the start of work to complete the rebuilding of the keep, which was still a ruined stump. The plan was to reconstruct it to a height of 36 m, 7 storeys, and name it the Rudolf Hess Tower. However, the existing foundations would not have been able to bear the weight, so the ruin was pulled down, and in November 1938, work began on a completely new tower on a smaller footprint. Work on this was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II
.
From 1940 to 1942, the castle served as a military hospital. In addition, in November 1940, students from now occupied Luxembourg
who had been studying at German and Austrian universities when the war began were forced to attend re-education classes there, and eventually a youth re-education camp was set up. Male schoolchildren and students from Esch-sur-Alzette
and Echternach
were interned at the castle for 4 months as punishment for protesting against the announcement in 1942 of the introduction of required military service in Luxembourg and the forced conscription associated with it, as well as for participating in the general strike
which followed. (Girls were sent to a youth hostel at Adenau
.) Those of military age were then sent to the front. There is a memorial plaque at the castle, and the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the City of Bacharach have organised memorial events at which contemporary witnesses spoke.
Beginning in January 1943, the castle was used as an internment camp for German youth who had shown insufficient loyalty to the Party, such as the founders of the Catholic youth resistance group the Michael Troop; some were taken from Stahleck to concentration camps. From June 1943 to summer 1944, it was a work and military training camp for Germans between 14 and 18 years of age.
opened a youth leadership school at the castle in January 1948 to train prospective hostel managers and staff, but was forced to close it at the end of the same year because of the state's poor financial situation. The hostel itself, however, was unaffected. In 1957 the castle offered 270 beds and 60 emergency spaces and was thus the third largest youth hostel in Rhineland-Palatinate, after those in Koblenz
and Mainz
. In terms of overnight stays, it was in second place with 32,276.
Beginning in October 1965, a further building programme was carried out at the castle under government superintendent of works Heinrich Grimm, based on the plans of Stahl, who had died in 1957. This included interior modernisation and renovation and a new administration building. In addition, a large terrace was created on the south side, and beginning in 1966 the still incomplete keep was built up a further 4 m and topped with a tall cone-shaped roof. The ceremonial reopening took place on 20 May 1967.
The castle is still used as a hostel, now leased by the Rhineland-Palatinate Youth Hostel Association. It currently offers 168 beds and has approximately 42,000 overnights per year. It is almost always booked up. In the 1990s the non-visitor facilities were once more modernised at a cost of 8.3 million marks.
, from which entry to the castle was through a double-barred door in the northern shield wall, 8 m from the northwest corner. The former main gate was in the west corner, on the site of today's main entrance, and could be reached either from the northern inner ward or by way of a drawbridge
from a group of outbuildings to the southwest. The main gate led to a gate ward and an inside gate from which a narrow passage led to the courtyard. The third entrance consisted of a small door in the outside wall of the southern outer ward, which was parallel to the ring wall and had a round tower at the south corner.
Immediately inside the northern ring wall was a longish building with a stone residential building attached to its northern end. Its ground floor was divided into several small rooms, and at the south end there was a Fachwerk building whose outside wall was the southern defensive wall. Two more Fachwerk buildings stood on the west side in the shelter of a shield wall which protected the castle on the side where the hillside is higher. The buildings thus enclosed a long, narrow inner courtyard, in the centre of which was a round Romanesque
keep (bergfried
), with an outside wall 4 m thick.
Water was supplied to the castle by a well sunk into the hillside within the shield wall. It was connected by a tunnel at a depth of approximately four metres to the moat outside the walls.
Finds of fragments of early Gothic
vaulting and of a Gothic window showed that the castle had a chapel. Until then, the only evidence had been a mention in the 1471 testament of Ruprecht of the Palatinate
, Archbishop of Cologne. It is impossible to know exactly where the chapel was, but it is presumed to have been on the first floor of the palas, where Merian's engraving shows a small bay window on the Rhine side of the building.
In addition to the still existing artillery platform on the southwest side, there was a bastion in the northeast.
. The rebuilding plans were mostly the work of Ernst Stahl, who closely followed Merian's depiction and used other historical models where the engraving gave no information. For example, the almost rectangular shape of the castle, measuring approximately 55 by 24 m, shows the typical regular layout and clear divisions of a castle of the Hohenstaufen period. The size of the modern buildings approximates that of those in the original castle; the oldest portions are the foundations of the keep, parts of the cellar under the palas and sections of the curtain wall.
Since the castle is used as a hostel, it is not available for tours. However, the courtyard is accessible to the public and offers a fine view of the Rhine, since on that side there is only a low parapet
.
and lime, similar to concrete), and stands at the eastern, Rhine valley end of the courtyard, over a vaulted cellar that Ernst Stahl dated to the time of Conrad of Hohenstaufen. It has a shingled
hip roof
10 m high. Adjoining it on the southwest side is the so-called kitchen building, with Fachwerk first floor, which today is the residence of the hostel managers.
On the courtyard side, a red sandstone tablet commemorates Duke Karl Ludwig
's rebuilding of the castle. The inscription reads:
Of the numerous details that Stahl once envisaged incorporating in the rebuilding of the castle, only the windows and chandeliers of the great hall
exist today. The 11 windows of the hall, made of stained glass by the Düsseldorf
glass painter Richard Gassen, depict the most important events in the history of the castle and the arms of the people or institutions of the Rhine Province
in the 1920s. They are framed by versions in basalt which can only be seen from outside. The room has an oak plank floor and holds approximately 100 people.
(keep) should be dated to the 12th century. The keep is a round tower 7.5 m in diameter which stands on bedrock in the centre of the inner courtyard. It has walls 2 metres thick and is topped by a 16 m cone-shaped roof. The top floor, 4 m high, was added later, which can be seen from the different colour of the stone.
which has been fortified to form a shield wall 2.6 m thick. There is an interior stairway, which does not, however, reach as far as the roofed chemin de ronde
at the top of the wall; it is used to reach the upper floors of the 1930s tower building. Some of the tall, narrow embrasure
s were subsequently walled closed at the base and fitted with wooden frames to absorb the recoil of early firearms. Their fishtail shape indicates that the wall dates to the first half of the 14th century. At the top they are flanked on both sides by polygonal turrets which replaced two earlier round towers.
Below the shield wall is a moat
cut out of the rock. A section of this measuring 18 by 13 metres is separated off and filled with water, doubling as a cistern
. A stone bridge leads over the moat to the main entrance; the gateway is guarded by an embrasured turret above and leads to an elongated outer ward
.
on the courtyard side with a curved gable.
What is now known as the tower building, formerly the girls' hostel, stands against the shield wall. It resembles the longhouse in its details.
A walled platform cut out of the rock a little above the castle to the southwest is a post-medieval position for artillery aimed at the hillside which was an important part of the castle's defences after the introduction of gunpowder. Its precise date is unknown, but Matthäus Merian's 17th-century engraving shows that it existed by 1646.
Rhine Gorge
The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km section of the River Rhine between Koblenz and Bingen in Germany...
at Bacharach
Bacharach
Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds....
in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It stands on a crag approximately above sea level on the left bank of the river at the mouth of the Steeg valley, approximately south of Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
, and offers a commanding view of the Lorelei
Lorelei
The Lorelei is a rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine near St. Goarshausen, Germany, which soars some 120 metres above the waterline. It marks the narrowest part of the river between Switzerland and the North Sea. A very strong current and rocks below the waterline have caused many boat...
valley. Its name means "impregnable castle on a crag", from the Middle High German
Middle High German
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
words stahel (steel) and ecke (here: crag). It has a water-filled partial moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
, a rarity in Germany. Built on the orders of the Archbishop of Cologne, it was destroyed in the late 17th century but rebuilt in the 20th and is now a hostel
Hostel
Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...
.
Beginnings
From about 1000 CE, Bacharach is presumed to have been a possession of the Archbishops of Cologne. They had the castle built, perhaps as a southern outpost to guard the far-flung archbishopric; their VogtVogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
resided there. It is uncertain when the present castle was built to replace an earlier fortification; perhaps around 1135. It was the first large castle north of Bingen
Bingen
Bingen may refer to:* Bingen am Rhein, Germany* Bingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany* Bingen, Washington, United States* Bingen Hauptbahnhof...
and Rüdesheim
Rüdesheim
Rüdesheim is a winemaking town in the Rhine Gorge and thereby part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It lies in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany...
.
A "Gozwin von Stalecke" is first mentioned in charters in 1120/21. This was Goswin von Falkenburg, who is also referred to in 1135 by the Latin translation "Cozwinus de Staelechae" and was the first attested holder of the castle in fief. He was a member of a Main-Frankish family and had come into possession of the castle through marriage to Luitgard von Hengebach, the widow of Heinrich I of Katzenelnbogen
County of Katzenelnbogen
The County of Katzenelnbogen was an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed between 1095 and 1479, when it was inherited by the Landgraves of Hesse.The estate comprised two separate territories...
, who died in 1102. From then on he called himself Goswin von Stahleck.
Seat of the Counts Palatine by Rhine
In 1125, Goswin's son Hermann married Gertrud of SwabiaDuke of Swabia
The following is a list of Dukes of Swabia in southwest Germany.Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief...
, sister of King Conrad III of Germany
Conrad III of Germany
Conrad III was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.-Life and reign:...
. After receiving Stahleck Castle in fief from his brother in law in 1140, in 1140 he was additionally granted the County of Palatinate by Rhine. This made him one of the greatest lords of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
and the Four Valley Region, which consisted of the settlements of Bacharach, Steeg (now part of Bacharach), Diebach and Manubach
Manubach
Manubach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...
plus the castles of Stahleck, Fürstenberg
Burg Fürstenberg (Rheindiebach)
The Burg Fürstenberg is a castle near the village of Rheindiebach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Sources and external links:...
and Stahlberg, and made Stahleck the centre of power of the heart of what later became the Rhineland territory of the Counts Palatine. They developed Bacharach into a trading town, among other things for the wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
trade, and the castle was thus used to enforce payment of duties
Duty (economics)
In economics, a duty is a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law. It is a tax on certain items purchased abroad...
. When he went on the Second Crusade
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098...
, Conrad made Hermann his regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
.
After Hermann's death in 1156, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa bestowed the title of Count Palatine on his half-brother Conrad of Hohenstaufen
Conrad of Hohenstaufen
Conrad of Hohenstaufen was the first hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine.His parents were Frederick II of Swabia , Duke of Swabia, and his second wife Agnes of Saarbrücken...
. After the death of his remaining son in 1189, Conrad's only heir was his daughter Agnes. So that the castle and the title could remain in the family, that year King Henry VI
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VI was King of Germany from 1190 to 1197, Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197 and King of Sicily from 1194 to 1197.-Early years:Born in Nijmegen,...
commuted the fief from a personal to a hereditary one. In the future this led to repeated conflicts between the Counts Palatine and the See of Cologne, since Stahleck was a possession of the Electoral Archbishop and not the king's to modify.
It was her father's wish for Agnes to marry King Philip II of France
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
, but instead when Conrad was away from the castle in January or February 1194, she secretly married Henry the Elder of Brunswick
Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine
Henry was count palatine of the Rhine from 6 August 1195 to 1213.Henry was the eldest son of Duke Henry the Lion, from his marriage to Matilda, eldest daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He grew up in England and became count palatine of the Rhine through his 1193...
, son of his enemy the Welf Duke Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....
, to whom she had previously been engaged; the marriage, performed by Johann I, Archbishop of Triers
Archbishopric of Trier
The Archbishopric of Trier was a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany, that existed from Carolingian times until the end of the Holy Roman Empire. Its suffragans were the dioceses of Metz, Toul and Verdun. Since the 9th century the Archbishops of Trier were simultaneously princes and since the 11th...
, is known as the Stahleck Marriage or the Bacharach Marriage. After Conrad's death, Henry succeeded him as Count Palatine and so came into possession of the castle. However, in 1212 he renounced the title and the rights associated with it in favour of his son Henry the Younger
Henry VI, Count Palatine of the Rhine
Henry VI "the Younger" of Brunswick, of the House of Welf, was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1212 to 1214.Henry was born around 1196, the only son of Count Palatine Henry V and Agnes, daughter of Conrad, Count Palatine of the Rhine...
. When the latter died young and childless in 1214, his younger sister Agnes
Agnes of the Palatinate
Agnes of the Palatinate was a daughter of Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine and his first wife Agnes, daughter of Conrad, Count Palatine of the Rhine . Agnes was Duchess of Bavaria by her marriage to Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria....
inherited Stahleck. The non-allodial
Allodial title
Allodial title constitutes ownership of real property that is independent of any superior landlord, but it should not be confused with anarchy as the owner of allodial land is not independent of his sovereign...
remainder of the County reverted to the Crown and was subsequently bestowed on the Bavarian Duke Ludwig I
Louis I, Duke of Bavaria
Duke Louis I of Bavaria was the Duke of Bavaria in 1183 and Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1214. He was a son of Otto I and his wife Agnes of Loon. Louis was married to Ludmilla, a daughter of Duke Frederick of Bohemia.-Biography:Louis extended the duchy of Bavaria and founded many cities...
of the House of Wittelsbach.
Wittelsbach ownership
Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria
Otto II of Bavaria was the Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine . He was a son of Louis I and Ludmilla of Bohemia and a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty.- Biography :...
and Agnes. Under Otto (Otto II) in 1243, the long-running conflict with the Archbishopric of Cologne was settled, and he received Fürstenberg and Stahlberg Castles as additional fiefs.
Ludwig I transferred his primary residence to Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, so that from then on, Stahleck was used only occasionally and was overseen by count
Graf
Graf is a historical German noble title equal in rank to a count or a British earl...
s, who called themselves "Ritter (Knight) von Stahleck". From the 15th century on, it was administered by bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
s. However, although the castle was no longer the administrative centre of the Palatinate, important gatherings of the nobility continued to take place there into the 15th century, including the election of Ludwig IV
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Louis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the King of Germany from 1314, the King of Italy from 1327 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1328....
as King of Germany in May 1314 and the wedding of Emperor Charles IV
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....
and Anna
Anna of Bavaria
Anna of Bavaria was a Queen consort of Bohemia. She was the daughter of Rudolf II, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, and of Anna, daughter of Otto II, Duke of Carinthia....
, only daughter of Rudolf II, Count Palatine, on 4 March 1349. In addition, the castle was used several times during the 14th century as a pledge. In December 1314, to cover the costs of his election, Ludwig IV pledged it for 58,300 pounds of Heller
Heller (money)
The Heller or Häller was originally a German coin valued at half a pfennig and named after the city of Hall am Kocher...
s to John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, and his uncle Baldwin, Electoral Archbishop of Triers. In July 1328, they were required to surrender Stahleck and also Stahlberg and Braunshorn Castles as security for a fine payable to Countess Loretta of Sponheim
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
. The castle was thus administered by Count Wilhelm I of Katzenelnbogen as regent until the entire sum of 11,000 pounds had been paid. The castle was also opened for military use to Gerlach of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz, in 1346.
In 1353, the Palatinate was divided and Stahleck Castle passed to Rupert the Younger, after which it was incorporated into the fortifications around the town of Bacharach. In late 1400, Rupert's son, also named Rupert, celebrated there his election as King of Germany and Rome after the deposition of King Wenceslaus of Luxembourg
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans
Wenceslaus ) was, by election, German King from 1376 and, by inheritance, King of Bohemia from 1378. He was the third Bohemian and second German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty...
. In 1408, Rupert hosted a banquet for the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, but after that Stahleck gradually lost its importance for the empire. In 1442 Ludwig IV, Count Palatine, held a reception and electoral banquet there for King Frederick of Habsburg
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...
as he was en route to Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
to be crowned Emperor, but during the 15th and 16th centuries the castle sank into insignificance.
Destruction in the 17th century
After the introduction of cannon, an artillery platform was added to the medieval castle on the northeast side to cover the access route, but its exact date of construction is unknown. Despite this, the castle was besieged, conquered, and sacked a total of eight times during the Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
. On 4 October 1620, it and the town of Bacharach were taken by Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
troops commanded by Ambrogio Spinola, but the Spaniards were evicted by Protestant Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
on 9 January 1632. The castle was heavily damaged during the siege leading up to its recapture. A copper engraving in Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...
's 1646 Topographia Germaniae depicts the battle.
In July 1635, Imperial troops under Matthias Gallas
Matthias Gallas
Matthias Gallas, Graf von Campo und Herzog von Lucera , was an Austrian soldier, who first saw service in Flanders, then in Savoy with the Spaniards, and subsequently joined the forces of the Catholic League as captain during the Thirty Years' War.On the general outbreak of hostilities in Germany,...
, Count of Campo, successfully besieged Stahleck. They were evicted four years later, in July 1639, by Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar.-Division of Leipzig:...
soldiers, but the castle was then occupied by Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n troops in March 1640. They stayed only a short time, and after their withdrawal the Saxe-Weimar troops reoccupied the castle and the town. In autumn 1640, after a 14-day siege, Spanish troops once more took their place.
In September 1644, the castle and the town were taken by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
soldiers after a 10-day siege; the following month, Cologne troops attacked them and forced them to retreat to the castle with heavy losses. The Cologne commander, Constantin von Nievenheimb, therefore ordered the bombardment and "more or less ruination" of the castle, but did not attempt to capture it. The French soldiers remained until 24 July 1650 but had to vacate the castle under the terms of the Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
, which returned it to the Palatinate and Count Palatine Karl Ludwig
Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
Charles Louis, , Elector Palatine KG was the second son of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and his wife, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England ....
. In 1666, he had the castle repaired and made some alterations: he greatly changed the interior of the palas and between it and the northern rampart
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....
built a massive new building with a Fachwerk half-timbered upper storey. An inscribed stone tablet on the palas commemorates his rebuilding of the castle.
During the War of the Palatine Succession, the castle was decisively destroyed, like most of the fortifications in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Its commander, von Dachenhausen, surrendered it to French troops on 11 October 1688, but on 15 March 1689 they blew it up. The explosion completely destroyed both the ring wall and the keep
Bergfried
A bergfried is a tall tower typically found in medieval castles in German-speaking countries . Its defensive function is to some extent similar to that of a keep or donjon in English or French castles...
, the residential buildings burned out in the resulting fire, and debris from the explosion destroyed the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
Werner Chapel at the foot of the castle hill. The castle was so heavily damaged that it was not rebuilt. Under the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick
Treaty of Ryswick
The Treaty of Ryswick or Ryswyck was signed on 20 September 1697 and named after Ryswick in the Dutch Republic. The treaty settled the Nine Years' War, which pitted France against the Grand Alliance of England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the United Provinces.Negotiations started in May...
, the ruin reverted to the Palatinate, where it remained until the dissolution of the County at the end of the 18th century.
French and Prussian ownership
After the occupation of the parts of the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine by French Revolutionary troopsFrench Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
in 1794, in 1801 the Treaty of Lunéville
Treaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed on 9 February 1801 between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, negotiating both on behalf of his own domains and of the Holy Roman Empire...
awarded the ruined castle to the French; in 1804 they offered it for sale. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
resulted in its passing into the possession of the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
. In 1828 the then Crown Prince Frederick William
Frederick William IV of Prussia
|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...
acquired it in order to give it to his wife Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria
Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria
Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria was a Princess of Bavaria and later Queen consort of Prussia.-Early life and family:...
; she was a Wittelsbach princess. In association with a visit by her in the 1850s, large parts of the toppling walls were cleared, and the rubble spread over the courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
and used to fill the moat. All that remained was the wall of the palas on the courtyard side, the ring wall on the Steeg valley side to the height of the chemin de ronde
Chemin de ronde
A chemin de ronde — also called an allure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk — is a raised, protected walkway behind a castle battlement....
and a small piece of the inner or shield wall
Shield wall (fortification)
A shield wall refers to the highest and strongest wall of a castle where it is clearly distinguished from the other curtain walls of a castle. The shield wall serves to protect the side from which the main attack is expected...
.
The ruined castle became well known among romantics and nationalists and was often depicted in the 19th century. Beginning in 1907, Axel Delmar had plans for a home for artists in the ruins of the castle, but the Prussian royal family refused to sell the site.
20th-century rebuilding
The first work to stabilise and rebuild the ring wall and shield wall, costing 3,500 markGerman gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...
s, began only in 1909, after the ruin had been transferred from the Prussian Crown to the Rhenish Association for Landmark Preservation and Landscape Protection. The Association was able to raise the 5,000 mark purchase price through donations. Work was interrupted by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and the castle suffered further vandalism and decay. In 1924 Richard Blankenhorn, the owner of the villa above the castle, wished to start a business in the ruins, but there was no response for 5 years to his enquiry concerning a lease.
Early in 1925 the decision was taken to construct a youth hostel at the castle. Firm plans were made in March of that year. The Association contracted with the architect Ernst Stahl to "build in the ruin, in the spirit of the old buildings and making use of the old walls, a building which [would] fit well into the landscape". Financing of the initial work was ensured by an endowment of 50,000 reichsmarks.
Stahleck became the Association's prestige project. The intention was to completely rebuild the castle. Stahl based his designs on historical models and appended them to remaining structures, but changed his plans again after ancient, previously unknown building foundations came to light in excavations beginning in August 1925. The excavations and the attendant repeated surveying of the site delayed the start of building to late summer 1925. The first building, the longhouse, was intended as a hostel for boys. On the first floor, executed in Fachwerk, were a flat for the hostel manager and an adjacent dormitory with washroom. On the ground floor, built in crushed stone, were the kitchen and a day-room, while the top floor, which has dormer
Dormer
A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...
s on the courtyard side, housed further sleeping and washing space. The design adhered as far as possible to the use of space in the old castle. An old cellar at the east corner of the site was rebuilt and roofed over in reinforced concrete to make a viewing terrace. Further excavations took place parallel to the construction work, and recovered stones were used as building material in rebuilding the ring wall and the foundation of the keep.
The official dedication of the youth hostel took place on 12–13 June 1926 and was followed by a second building phase, from autumn 1926 to July 1927, in which the tower building, with two wings at right angles and a turret at the angle, was built as a girls' hostel on the foundations of two Fachwerk buildings against the shield wall. The ground floor consisted of a large day-room; on the first floor were a large dormitory, washrooms and living and sleeping space for matrons. Further sleeping space was under the single-pitched roof, and in addition there was a 4-bed room inside the turret. Rebuilding of the entire ring wall and the shield wall lasted until 1927.
Once open, the youth hostel was almost always oversubscribed, leading to problems with the water supply. Insufficient water frequently led to a complete ban on washing. The problem was alleviated by tapping a new source of water on the western hillside.
In 1929, the keep, with two holes in it from the explosion, was finally stabilised to a height of 3 m. The hole on the east side was used as an entrance to the tower. Also in 1929, the day-rooms were redecorated with dado
Dado (architecture)
In architectural terminology, the dado, borrowed from Italian meaning die or plinth, is the lower part of a wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board....
s and murals. In 1930–31, the ground floor of the ruined palas was rebuilt, to make a dining hall, a dishwashing room, and a flat for the hostel manager. In 1932, work was done on clearing the rubble from the moat.
Under the Nazis
Since there was still insufficient space in the hostel, which had over 30,000 overnight stays in 1934, the palas was completely rebuilt, providing 260 beds. The ceremonial laying of its foundation stone took place on 18 November 1934. The work, which took only 11 months, cost 25,000 reichsmarks and included addition of a kitchen, another Fachwerk building, on the south side. On 25 October 1935, the rebuilt building was officially dedicated. In the presence of members of the Hitler Jugend, the Deutsches JungvolkDeutsches Jungvolk
thumb|250px|DJ TroopThe Deutsches Jungvolk was the subdivision of the Hitler Youth for boys aged 10 to 14. It reinforced the National Socialist view of Aryan ideals and transmitted the Nazi idea of the Volksgemeinschaft...
, the Bund Deutscher Mädel, and both the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
and the SS, Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
Gustav Simon
Gustav Simon
Gustav Simon was, as the Nazi Gauleiter in the Moselland Gau from 1940 until 1944, the Chief of the Civil Administration in Luxembourg, which was occupied at that time by Nazi Germany....
gave the dedicatory address. Stahleck became one of 27 Jugendburgen (youth castles), to be used for indoctrination of teenagers and young adults. Between 1937 and early 1938, the turrets on the shield wall were built and its chemin de ronde roofed over. A visit by Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
in June 1938 prompted the start of work to complete the rebuilding of the keep, which was still a ruined stump. The plan was to reconstruct it to a height of 36 m, 7 storeys, and name it the Rudolf Hess Tower. However, the existing foundations would not have been able to bear the weight, so the ruin was pulled down, and in November 1938, work began on a completely new tower on a smaller footprint. Work on this was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
From 1940 to 1942, the castle served as a military hospital. In addition, in November 1940, students from now occupied Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
who had been studying at German and Austrian universities when the war began were forced to attend re-education classes there, and eventually a youth re-education camp was set up. Male schoolchildren and students from Esch-sur-Alzette
Esch-sur-Alzette
Esch-sur-Alzette is a commune with city status, in south-western Luxembourg. It is the country's second city, and its second-most populous commune, with a population of 29,853 people...
and Echternach
Echternach
Echternach is a commune with city status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town in Luxembourg....
were interned at the castle for 4 months as punishment for protesting against the announcement in 1942 of the introduction of required military service in Luxembourg and the forced conscription associated with it, as well as for participating in the general strike
1942 Luxembourgian general strike
The Luxembourgian general strike of 1942 was a pacific resistance movement organised within a short time period to protest against a directive that conscripted Luxembourg youth into the Wehrmacht...
which followed. (Girls were sent to a youth hostel at Adenau
Adenau
Adenau is a town in the High Eifel in Germany. It is known as the Johanniterstadt because the Order of Saint John was based there in the Middle Ages. The town's coat of arms combines the black cross of the Electorate of Cologne with the lion of the lords of Nürburg...
.) Those of military age were then sent to the front. There is a memorial plaque at the castle, and the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the City of Bacharach have organised memorial events at which contemporary witnesses spoke.
Beginning in January 1943, the castle was used as an internment camp for German youth who had shown insufficient loyalty to the Party, such as the founders of the Catholic youth resistance group the Michael Troop; some were taken from Stahleck to concentration camps. From June 1943 to summer 1944, it was a work and military training camp for Germans between 14 and 18 years of age.
After the war and today
Following the end of the war, Stahleck Castle was first used to billet French soldiers, before returning to use as a youth hostel in November 1947. The Health and Welfare Ministry of Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
opened a youth leadership school at the castle in January 1948 to train prospective hostel managers and staff, but was forced to close it at the end of the same year because of the state's poor financial situation. The hostel itself, however, was unaffected. In 1957 the castle offered 270 beds and 60 emergency spaces and was thus the third largest youth hostel in Rhineland-Palatinate, after those in Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
and Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
. In terms of overnight stays, it was in second place with 32,276.
Beginning in October 1965, a further building programme was carried out at the castle under government superintendent of works Heinrich Grimm, based on the plans of Stahl, who had died in 1957. This included interior modernisation and renovation and a new administration building. In addition, a large terrace was created on the south side, and beginning in 1966 the still incomplete keep was built up a further 4 m and topped with a tall cone-shaped roof. The ceremonial reopening took place on 20 May 1967.
The castle is still used as a hostel, now leased by the Rhineland-Palatinate Youth Hostel Association. It currently offers 168 beds and has approximately 42,000 overnights per year. It is almost always booked up. In the 1990s the non-visitor facilities were once more modernised at a cost of 8.3 million marks.
Until 1689
A series of archaeological excavations between 1925 and 1927 revealed many previously hidden foundations of medieval buildings at the castle site, making it possible to reconstruct what was there before the castle was destroyed in 1689. According to the evidence, since the Middle Ages, Stahleck Castle had had 3 entrances. One was a double gate reached by steps from the Rhine Valley, leading into a small, elongated outer wardWard (fortification)
In fortifications, a bailey or ward refers to a courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall. In particular, an early type of European castle was known as a Motte-and-bailey. Castles can have more than one ward. Their layout depends both on the local topography and the level of fortification technology...
, from which entry to the castle was through a double-barred door in the northern shield wall, 8 m from the northwest corner. The former main gate was in the west corner, on the site of today's main entrance, and could be reached either from the northern inner ward or by way of a drawbridge
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
from a group of outbuildings to the southwest. The main gate led to a gate ward and an inside gate from which a narrow passage led to the courtyard. The third entrance consisted of a small door in the outside wall of the southern outer ward, which was parallel to the ring wall and had a round tower at the south corner.
Immediately inside the northern ring wall was a longish building with a stone residential building attached to its northern end. Its ground floor was divided into several small rooms, and at the south end there was a Fachwerk building whose outside wall was the southern defensive wall. Two more Fachwerk buildings stood on the west side in the shelter of a shield wall which protected the castle on the side where the hillside is higher. The buildings thus enclosed a long, narrow inner courtyard, in the centre of which was a round Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
keep (bergfried
Bergfried
A bergfried is a tall tower typically found in medieval castles in German-speaking countries . Its defensive function is to some extent similar to that of a keep or donjon in English or French castles...
), with an outside wall 4 m thick.
Water was supplied to the castle by a well sunk into the hillside within the shield wall. It was connected by a tunnel at a depth of approximately four metres to the moat outside the walls.
Finds of fragments of early Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
vaulting and of a Gothic window showed that the castle had a chapel. Until then, the only evidence had been a mention in the 1471 testament of Ruprecht of the Palatinate
Ruprecht of the Palatinate (Archbishop of Cologne)
Ruprecht of the Palatinate was the Archbishop and Prince Elector of Cologne from 1463 to 1480.He was the third son of Louis III, Count Palatine of the Rhine, by his second wife, Matilda of Savoy. He renounced his claim to lands of the Palatinate and studied for holy orders at the universities of...
, Archbishop of Cologne. It is impossible to know exactly where the chapel was, but it is presumed to have been on the first floor of the palas, where Merian's engraving shows a small bay window on the Rhine side of the building.
In addition to the still existing artillery platform on the southwest side, there was a bastion in the northeast.
Today
The castle today is a 20th-century reconstruction, primarily based on the results of excavation and the 1646 engraving by Matthäus MerianMatthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...
. The rebuilding plans were mostly the work of Ernst Stahl, who closely followed Merian's depiction and used other historical models where the engraving gave no information. For example, the almost rectangular shape of the castle, measuring approximately 55 by 24 m, shows the typical regular layout and clear divisions of a castle of the Hohenstaufen period. The size of the modern buildings approximates that of those in the original castle; the oldest portions are the foundations of the keep, parts of the cellar under the palas and sections of the curtain wall.
Since the castle is used as a hostel, it is not available for tours. However, the courtyard is accessible to the public and offers a fine view of the Rhine, since on that side there is only a low parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
.
Palas
The palas (residential building) is 2 storeys high, built of crushed stone lined with Rhenish Schwemmstein (a traditional artificial material made of dried pumicePumice
Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. It can be formed when lava and water are mixed. This unusual formation is due to the simultaneous actions of rapid...
and lime, similar to concrete), and stands at the eastern, Rhine valley end of the courtyard, over a vaulted cellar that Ernst Stahl dated to the time of Conrad of Hohenstaufen. It has a shingled
Shake (shingle)
A shake is a basic wooden shingle that is made from split logs. Shakes have traditionally been used for roofing and siding applications around the world. Higher grade shakes are typically used for roofing purposes, while the lower grades are used for siding purposes...
hip roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
10 m high. Adjoining it on the southwest side is the so-called kitchen building, with Fachwerk first floor, which today is the residence of the hostel managers.
On the courtyard side, a red sandstone tablet commemorates Duke Karl Ludwig
Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
Charles Louis, , Elector Palatine KG was the second son of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and his wife, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England ....
's rebuilding of the castle. The inscription reads:
- CARL LVDWIG PFALTZGRAF CHVRFÜRST ERNEVERT MICH ANNO 1666 (Carl Ludwig, Count Palatine [and] Elector, remade me in the year 1666)
Of the numerous details that Stahl once envisaged incorporating in the rebuilding of the castle, only the windows and chandeliers of the great hall
Great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...
exist today. The 11 windows of the hall, made of stained glass by the Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
glass painter Richard Gassen, depict the most important events in the history of the castle and the arms of the people or institutions of the Rhine Province
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
in the 1920s. They are framed by versions in basalt which can only be seen from outside. The room has an oak plank floor and holds approximately 100 people.
Bergfried
Although documentary evidence leads to the conclusion that the castle was built in the 12th century at the latest, the archaeological investigations have been unable to provide proof. Stahl believed, however, that the preserved foundations of the bergfriedBergfried
A bergfried is a tall tower typically found in medieval castles in German-speaking countries . Its defensive function is to some extent similar to that of a keep or donjon in English or French castles...
(keep) should be dated to the 12th century. The keep is a round tower 7.5 m in diameter which stands on bedrock in the centre of the inner courtyard. It has walls 2 metres thick and is topped by a 16 m cone-shaped roof. The top floor, 4 m high, was added later, which can be seen from the different colour of the stone.
Shield wall and main entrance
The castle is defended from the high hillside on the west by a chemise wallChemise (wall)
In medieval castles the chemise was typically a low wall encircling the keep, protecting the base of the tower. An alternative term, more commonly used in English is mantlet wall....
which has been fortified to form a shield wall 2.6 m thick. There is an interior stairway, which does not, however, reach as far as the roofed chemin de ronde
Chemin de ronde
A chemin de ronde — also called an allure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk — is a raised, protected walkway behind a castle battlement....
at the top of the wall; it is used to reach the upper floors of the 1930s tower building. Some of the tall, narrow embrasure
Embrasure
In military architecture, an embrasure is the opening in a crenellation or battlement between the two raised solid portions or merlons, sometimes called a crenel or crenelle...
s were subsequently walled closed at the base and fitted with wooden frames to absorb the recoil of early firearms. Their fishtail shape indicates that the wall dates to the first half of the 14th century. At the top they are flanked on both sides by polygonal turrets which replaced two earlier round towers.
Below the shield wall is a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
cut out of the rock. A section of this measuring 18 by 13 metres is separated off and filled with water, doubling as a cistern
Cistern
A cistern is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by their waterproof linings...
. A stone bridge leads over the moat to the main entrance; the gateway is guarded by an embrasured turret above and leads to an elongated outer ward
Ward (fortification)
In fortifications, a bailey or ward refers to a courtyard enclosed by a curtain wall. In particular, an early type of European castle was known as a Motte-and-bailey. Castles can have more than one ward. Their layout depends both on the local topography and the level of fortification technology...
.
Other structures
The former boys' hostel is now called the longhouse. It has a ground floor of crushed stone and a Fachwerk first floor. The slate roof has a dormerDormer
A dormer is a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.Often...
on the courtyard side with a curved gable.
What is now known as the tower building, formerly the girls' hostel, stands against the shield wall. It resembles the longhouse in its details.
A walled platform cut out of the rock a little above the castle to the southwest is a post-medieval position for artillery aimed at the hillside which was an important part of the castle's defences after the introduction of gunpowder. Its precise date is unknown, but Matthäus Merian's 17th-century engraving shows that it existed by 1646.
Sources
- Gabriele Nina Strickhausen-Bode. Stahls Stahleck: Ernst Stahl (1882-1957) und der Neuaufbau von Burg Stahleck am Rhein. Braubach: Deutsche Burgenvereinigung, 2007, ISBN 978-3-927558-26-7
- Stefan Grathoff, Burg Stahleck at regionalgeschichte.net