Burg Linz: A Medieval Defensive and Toll Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Burg Linz is a castle in Linz am Rhein, Germany, built for the Electorate of Cologne between 1364 and 1368 in the late Gothic period. It defended Cologne’s territories on the right bank of the Rhine while also serving as a toll castle for collecting river duties. The castle later became an administrative centre, and its surviving buildings reflect centuries of military, governmental, judicial, and private use.
Medieval foundation and Cologne rule
Linz appears in records as early as 874 and received city rights between 1304 and 1332 from Heinrich von Virneburg, the archbishop and prince-elector of Cologne. After an uprising in Andernach in 1359, the Cologne territorial lord removed Andernach’s privilege to collect river tolls and transferred it to Linz. The new castle was built between 1364 and 1368, during the succession of Heinrich von Virneburg. Engelbert von der Mark, his successor, is associated with the beginning of the construction.
The project cost 30,000 Cologne marks. Because the elector had to borrow the money, the completed castle was pledged to the Electorate of Trier for eight years. Under Cologne’s rule, it protected the territorial administration on the eastern side of the Rhine and secured the collection of duties. It also became the seat of a local administrator who represented the Cologne elector. This office managed the elector’s properties and revenues and collected taxes and other payments.
Siege and political refuge
In 1475, imperial troops besieged Linz for more than two months during the Neuss War, a fifteenth-century conflict between the archbishopric of Cologne and imperial forces. The castle was regarded as a strong fortress, but the siege caused extensive damage.
In 1547, Hermann V von Wied, archbishop and elector of Cologne, took refuge at Burg Linz while unsuccessfully trying to prevent his excommunication and removal from office. Excommunication was a formal exclusion from the Church, and in Hermann’s case it formed part of a wider religious and political conflict. He later withdrew to his family castle at Altwied.
Rebuilding and administrative change
In 1707, the elector transferred the administration of the Cologne territorial district from Altenwied to Linz. The change required an almost complete rebuilding of the castle. From the late Gothic complex, only the foundations and the surviving northwest tower remained. The rebuilt castle continued to serve administrative purposes until the political changes of the early nineteenth century.
Secularization in 1803 transferred or dissolved ecclesiastical territorial possessions. After this change, administrative and judicial officials of Nassau-Usingen occupied the former Cologne castle. The building also served as a prison from 1811 to 1851. When Linz came under Prussian rule in 1816, Burg Linz lost its former governmental and seigneurial importance. The Prussian treasury sold it in 1821 for 4,050 Reichstaler to Anton Feith, a Rhine customs official.
Municipal ownership and restoration
The surrounding moat was transferred to the town, which filled it in and created the Burgplatz. During the first half of the twentieth century, the castle increasingly deteriorated. From 1942 to 1945, during the Second World War, it was used again as a prison.
The town acquired Burg Linz in 1951 and initially converted it into social housing. An exterior restoration in 1973 exposed timber framing in the southern gables. Timber framing uses a visible structural framework of wooden members to support and define the walls. The town sold the castle again in 1985, after which its new private owners carried out a comprehensive renovation. Burg Linz remains privately owned.
Remains
Burg Linz is a lowland urban castle in the old town of Linz am Rhein, close to the Rhine and north of the surviving Rhine Gate. It was incorporated into the medieval town fortifications and was protected toward the town by walls and a water-filled moat. The castle now stands between Federal Road B42 and the railway line, approximately halfway between Cologne and Koblenz.
Rebuilt castle complex
The present complex consists of four wings enclosing a square inner courtyard. The wings rise to two or three storeys and are partly timber-framed. Repeated alterations during the nineteenth century changed the buildings after the major rebuilding of 1707. The castle is entered from the south by a double-flight staircase leading to the south portal, while another entrance is located in the east wing.
Northwest tower and medieval structures
The original castle probably began with the northwest corner tower and a building on the western side. Additional structures were then added progressively. The surviving tower was converted into a keep. Its lower sections are round, its upper section is octagonal, and it carries a steep Gothic roof. A division agreement from 1456 lists a gatehouse, a castle gate with a bridge, a well, a prison, and a castle forecourt with a moat.
Moat and surrounding buildings
The moat formerly ran along the southern and eastern sides of the castle. It was filled after the sale of the property and became the Burgplatz, so the former fortifications are no longer visible from the forecourt. After secularization, the Rhine-facing wing provided accommodation. Buildings used for wine pressing and fruit storage contained the administrative office and document archive, while an opposite carriage house served as a stable and wood store. Connecting structures and entrance doors completed the fourth side of the complex.
Timber framing and later features
The southern gables contain exposed timber framing revealed during the 1973 exterior restoration. A medieval torture chamber and a Roman glass-blowing installation were associated with the castle’s later visitor-oriented use. That use was subsequently discontinued, while the castle itself remained in private ownership after its comprehensive renovation.
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