Burgruine Sommerau: A Medieval Spur Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Burgruine Sommerau, also known as Schloss Sommerau, is a medieval castle ruin in Germany above the municipality of Sommerau. Built in the thirteenth century by the Trier knightly family von der Brücke, it occupied a rocky spur above the Ruwer and served as a noble seat connected with clerical authority. The castle was first mentioned in 1303, when the Trier lay judge Johann Walram, a descendant of the von der Brücke family, granted it as a fief to the Archbishop of Trier.
From Trier Fief to Noble Estate
A fief was property granted by a superior lord to a vassal in return for service and allegiance. Sommerau later became a fief of the Electorate of Trier, an ecclesiastical principality within the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the Archbishop of Trier, who also held the office of imperial elector. The castle was then transferred to the Luxembourg knightly family von der Fels.
Around 1440, Margaretha von der Fels transferred one half of the castle, which was by then also called Sommerau Castle, to her husband. The other half probably passed to her brother Georg von der Fels. In 1541, Georg and Arnold von der Fels were formally enfeoffed with the castle.
Damage, Decline, and Preservation
Luxembourg soldiers plundered and damaged the castle in 1575. Negotiations over compensation continued for several years. Further destructive damage occurred during the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict of 1618 to 1648 that involved political and religious divisions within the Holy Roman Empire.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the castle had already fallen into decay. It became state property in 1853 in an effort to prevent further deterioration. In 1902, it was sold to a private owner under a land-register obligation requiring its maintenance and keeping the property inseparable from its associated lands. A major renovation of the ruin followed in 1979 and 1980.
Remains
Burgruine Sommerau occupies a rocky spur approximately 45 metres long at about 322 metres above sea level. The Ruwer flowed around three sides of this projection, while the castle complex itself measures roughly 40 by 10 metres. Its surviving buildings and defensive elements extend along the length of the spur.
Residential and Defensive Buildings
Residential Building
The remains of the principal residential building, or palas, stand on the western side of the complex. A palas was the main living and representative building for a castle lord and his household. The structure retains three complete storeys visible from the interior and about half of a fourth. In the surviving upper section, the remains of a chimney rise from the second storey.
Square Tower
On the eastern side are the remains of a square bergfried, the main tower of a medieval castle, used for defence, observation, and sometimes residence. The tower rises approximately 16 metres above a vaulted cellar and contained four storeys, allowing it to serve as a residential tower as well as a defensive structure.
Access to the tower was provided by an ascending wooden defensive walkway leading to a doorway about 3 metres above ground level. On the southern side of the fourth upper storey, a large rectangular doorway opens beside a projecting latrine structure. This latrine rested on red-sandstone corbels, which remain part of the tower’s masonry.
Walls and Defensive Walkway
Only fragments of the curtain wall that carried the defensive walkway survive above ground. Other cross-walls lie buried in the ground, preserving elements of the castle’s internal division beneath the ruin.
Rock-Cut Waterway
At the narrowest point of the rocky spur, the rock was cut through to allow water from the Ruwer to operate a mill. The Sommerau Waterfall lies at this point, where the altered rock and flowing water form part of the surviving physical setting of the castle.
