Reichsburg Landskron: An Imperial Hilltop Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
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- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
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- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
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History
Reichsburg Landskron is the ruin of a high-medieval hilltop castle in Germany, near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate. Built by the Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia in 1206, it protected the Aachen–Frankfurt military road and the imperial territory around Sinzig, Remagen, and Heimersheim. The castle became the ancestral seat of the burgraves of Landskron and was drawn into the late twelfth- and early thirteenth-century rivalry between the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen, two dynastic factions competing for power in the German kingdom.
Before the Imperial Castle
Before the medieval fortress was established, the prominent basalt cone served as a Germanic assembly site. It later became a Roman watchpost and military position. Its proximity to the Roman fort of Rigomagnus, at present-day Remagen, connected the hill to that installation. After the fall of the Limes around AD 300, the site formed part of a chain of hilltop defenses intended to protect the Roman hinterland.
Construction and the Landskron Burgraves
Construction of the imperial castle, named Landiscrone, began in 1206 on Philip of Swabia’s orders. The basalt summit had to be leveled before building could begin. The castle guarded what was then regarded as the region’s most important and busiest military route, the road between Aachen and Frankfurt, while also securing imperial possessions around the lower Ahr.
Philip appointed Gerhard of Sinzig, also known as Gerischwin, as the first administrator. Gerhard, a Trier ministerial, a medieval service noble entrusted with administrative or military duties, had first appeared in Philip’s entourage in 1207. After Philip was assassinated in Bamberg on 21 June 1208 by Otto VIII of Wittelsbach, King Otto IV transferred responsibility for completing Landskron to Gerhard around Christmas of that year. Otto’s successor, Frederick II, retained him in office.
Gerhard I of Sinzig became the founder of the Gerhard line of Landskron burgraves. A burgrave was a castle governor whose office could develop into hereditary territorial rule. Five successive male-line burgraves bore the name Gerhard: Gerhard I, recorded from 1202 until his death in 1237; Gerhard II, recorded from 1238 until 1273; Gerhard III, recorded from 1276 until 1296; Gerhard IV, recorded from 1298 until 1369; and Gerhard V, recorded from 1333 until 1344. The family remained closely involved in imperial and royal politics. Gerhard IV, for example, was a vassal of four of the seven German electorates, including the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier and the Count Palatine of the Rhine.
Imperial Lordship
Landskron developed into an imperial lordship within the Holy Roman Empire, the medieval and early-modern political framework in which some territories were held directly from the emperor. It was not assigned to an imperial administrative circle. The lordship extended north of the Ahr and included Nierendorf and Oedingen. Before 1252, the Count of Neuenahr pledged Gimmigen to Gerhard, Burgrave of Landskron. Gimmigen and Kirchdaun later came to be held jointly by the County of Neuenahr and the Lordship of Landskron.
Gerhard of Landskron purchased Green near Lohrsdorf in 1333, and Lohrsdorf belonged to the imperial knighthood of Landskron by 1341 at the latest. At various times the lordship also included Königsfeld with Dedenbach and Schalkenbach, Vinxt, and Heckenbach in the imperial forests south of the lower Ahr, as well as the Lordship of Oberwinter with Birgel and Bandorf. Bodendorf, once part of the imperial estate of Sinzig and an exclave of the Lordship of Saffenburg since 1246, passed to the Lords of Landskron in 1478. Oberwinter had been divided in 1441, with one half going as a dowry to the Lords of Saffenburg and the other to the Quadt lords of Landskron.
When Gerhard IV died in 1369 without a male heir, his son-in-law Frederick of Tomburg and Frederick’s wife, Kunigunde, inherited the directly imperial lordship. Ownership then passed through an extensive female line. Later owners and co-owners included the houses of Tomburg, Sombreffe, Quadt of Landskron, Eynenburg, Plettenberg, Harff, Eltz-Pyrmont, Waldbott of Bassenheim, von der Leyen, Forst-Lombeck, Rheineck, Manderscheid, Brempt, Nesselrode, and, from 1775, the Barons of Clodt. Around 1800, Baron vom Stein, a descendant of the Quadts, held a share and sold it to Count Boos of Waldeck during the French occupation.
War, Fire, and Demolition
During the Thirty Years’ War, the Swedish general Baudissin captured Landskron on 10 February 1632. Troops commanded by Ernst of Isenburg-Grenzau drove the Swedish forces out in January 1633.
In 1659, rights and territories associated with Landskron were exchanged between Duke Philip William of Palatinate-Neuburg, acting as Duke of Jülich with imperial approval, Archbishop Karl Kaspar von der Leyen of Trier, and the Waldbott family. Jülich acquired the Waldbott share of the imperial fief and related territories while surrendering other jurisdictions. The duke held one-third of the castle and lordship, while Baron Johann von Brempt held the other two-thirds from the Einenberg share. In 1669, the Jülich share was pledged to Baron Wilhelm von Brempt.
A Jülich garrison occupied Landskron from 1659 to 1682. It belonged to a company commanded by Baron von Pallandt, a major general and governor of Jülich. Gottfried Grunter, Hans Heinrich de Grane, and Wilhelm Oswald von Pampus successively commanded the force. It began with ten soldiers and expanded to fifty during the Dutch War in 1672.
Lightning struck the castle during the night of 20–21 September 1677, causing a major fire. The outer walls were patched so that the fortress could retain military value, but rebuilding was judged uneconomic. Although Philip William initially favored preserving the imperial castle, his son Johann Wilhelm ordered its demolition on New Year’s Day 1682. Seventeen skilled workers from Jülich arrived on 8 January to blow up the Crown Tower. The destruction was completed within three weeks, and the garrison departed for Düsseldorf on 30 January. The castle was regarded as a possible liability for Jülich because enemy troops could occupy it.
Baron von Brempt later claimed 16,000 Reichstalers in damages for rebuilding his structures. In 1693, Duke Johann Wilhelm promised 6,000 Reichstalers, paid in annual installments of 500 Reichstalers. Further destruction affected nearby castles and towns during the War of the Palatine Succession, fought from 1688 to 1697.
From French Rule to Archaeological Investigation
The Lordship of Landskron was incorporated into France in 1795. The Congress of Vienna assigned the former imperial lordship to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815.
In the nineteenth century, proposals to quarry the basalt summit led to the foundation of a rescue association in 1889. The Ahrweiler district subsequently acquired the castle. Extensive excavations followed in 1906 and 1910, including the exposure of the upper gate. Roman finds discovered during construction work in 1910 prompted further archaeological investigation of the lower castle.
From 1906, the restaurateur and local historian Heinrich Möhren ran a seasonal tavern in a hut and in the castle cellar. After receiving a building permit in 1910, he built an excursion inn on the summit, within the lower castle, over the foundations of an archaeologically examined residential tower. Möhren’s large collection of excavation finds from around 1907 and 1910 was lost through wartime damage during the Second World War and the complete destruction of the inn by fire in 1949. An earthquake damaged the ruins in 1992, and the upper gate was repaired in 1999. The ruin is owned by Sebastian, Count von Kanitz, associated with Cappenberg Abbey, while the castle grounds are leased by the city of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.
Remains
Reichsburg Landskron occupies the widely visible basalt cone of Landskrone, 271.7 metres above sea level, in the lower Ahr Valley east of Bad Neuenahr. The cone lies between Gimmigen to the north-northwest, Heppingen to the west, Heimersheim to the south, and Lohrsdorf to the east. Once called mons Gimiche, or Gimmiger Berg, the mountain later took its present name from the castle. The fortress was arranged around a lower and upper castle, with two forward defensive zwingers, fortified outer areas before the main enclosure, protecting the approach.
Approach and Lower Castle
Defensive Zwingers
The masonry of the forward defenses reflects Staufen-period construction. It consists mainly of basalt columns laid in courses that alternate with leveling courses of slate rubble. The lower gate led into the northern zwinger, where a single block of masonry survives. A round tower still stood in this area in 1366. Another gate opened into the eastern zwinger, which had a lateral round tower and a double-leaf door. Service buildings, guardrooms, and stables occupied the zwinger spaces.
Upper Gate
The upper gate gave access to the lower castle and was richly faced with blocks of trachyte. The groove for its former portcullis, a vertically sliding defensive gate, remains visible. A two-storey building stood beside the entrance on the left and was probably the castle chapel. Excavations in 1906 and 1910 exposed parts of this entrance area.
Lower-Castle Buildings
The lower castle contained a palas, the principal residential and representative building of a medieval castle, together with a bakehouse, further residential buildings, and a castle well. An excursion inn later occupied the foundations of a residential tower within this area. Roman finds recovered during construction of the inn in 1910 linked the summit to its earlier military use, while the archaeological finds from the lower-castle investigations were subsequently lost.
Upper Castle
The upper castle occupied a tightly confined area with a more strongly defensive character. Its buildings included the substantial Crown Tower, a round tower, and a defensive building. The Crown Tower was destroyed during the demolition of 1682. The upper castle has not yet been excavated or archaeologically investigated.
Maria-Hilf Chapel
On a western plateau below the castle stands the Maria-Hilf Chapel, also called the Mary Chapel. Around 1470 it was known as the Chapel of the Five Virgins. The building is a plastered Romanesque structure made of rubble stone and large basalt columns.
Behind the altar on the eastern side, a small grotto was cut into the basalt rock. A hermitage was mentioned around 1366, and its occupant may have lived in this grotto on the side associated with the Epistle, the part of the altar traditionally linked with the reading of the Epistle during worship.
