Location: Rhineland
Rheinneck Castle is located on a Western side of Rhine river at former border between Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Germani. The first castle on a site of Rheinneck Castle was build in the 11th century, however due to its strategic location it did not escape multiple sieges and destructions. First it was captured in 1151 by king Konrad III and in 1282 by Rudolf of Habsburg. Today only the 64- foot tower and Romanesque church remain from the original medieval structures. The rest of castle was added in 1832 by Joseph von Lassaulx. Today it houses museum and restaurant that are operational between April and October.
The castle stands on a hill (186.9 m above sea level) that slopes down in all directions on the left bank of the Rhine in the Middle Rhine Valley in the immediate vicinity of the Vinxtbach. In Roman times it separated the Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Germany and the Moselle and Ripuarian Franks. Roman finds, antiticalia, on the castle hill suggest a Roman watchtower as a predecessor. Especially since the Roman Limes began near Rheinbrohl, on the other side of the Rhine. In the Middle Ages, the areas of Electoral Trier and Electoral Cologne bordered on one another.
The Counts Palatine of the Rhine built the castle in the 11th
century. When Count Palatine Siegfried I, who had built Cochem Castle on
the Moselle, died in a battle near Warnstedt (1113), he left his wife
Gertrud and three children. Gertrud was the sister of Richenza von
Northeim, the wife of the later Emperor Lothar III, and heiress to the
County of Bentheim. Gertrud's second marriage was to Count Otto von
Salm, who from 1126 was the first to call himself "Comes de Rinegke"
(Count of Rheineck). It is unclear whether Siegfried (after the
abandonment of Laach Castle in 1112) or only Otto (after the loss of
Treis Castle, which he had built in 1121) had Rheineck Castle built.
In 1140, after the death of Count Palatine Wilhelm, son of Count
Palatine Siegfried, King Conrad III. the old Palatine fiefs on the
Rhine. Against this, the von Salm-Rheineck rose up and tried to assert
the claims to Wilhelm's legacy. In the following dispute about the Count
Palatine between Otto von Salm and Hermann von Stahleck, Konrad III. had
started, Otto's son Otto II. opened the fight against Hermann. However,
he was taken prisoner and soon thereafter met a violent death on the
Schönburg. Count Otto I of Salm-Rheineck died in 1150 after he had given
his rights to Treis Castle to the Archbishop of Trier, Albero, with the
consent of his wife Gertrud. His widow Gertrud left Rheineck Castle and
retired to the county of Bentheim, which belonged to her. Archbishop
Albero very soon took possession of Treis Castle by force of arms, which
then led to King Konrad III. the old hatred against Rheineck was
rekindled. He ordered the destruction of the orphaned Rheineck Castle,
while conquering Cochem Castle and turning it into an imperial castle.
After the castle was destroyed in 1151, the archbishop of Cologne
and at the same time imperial chancellor Rainald von Dassel received
Andernach, near Rheineck, in 1167 as a gift from Emperor Frederick I
Barbarossa for his support in the battles near Tusculum in Italy. Since
the archbishop regarded the Cologne possessions of Andernach and Rhens
as an important pillar of his dominion, the castle was to be rebuilt as
a Cologne fortress. In order to forestall the claims to power and
territorial expansion plans of the then Count Palatine Konrad von
Hohenstaufen, a half-brother of the Emperor, Rainald therefore ordered
the rapid occupation of the mountain and the reconstruction of the
castle in 1164.
In this way he was able to prevent a civil war,
because his deputy and later successor Philipp I von Heinsberg,
following his instructions, brought together the then immense number of
125,000 men for an expected battle against the Count Palatine's troops.
On May 18, 1164, the enemy soldiers faced each other near the town of
Andernach, a few kilometers south of Rheineck Castle. The contemporary
Cologne royal chronicle notes on this date: In this year, when Count
Palatine Konrad, the brother of the emperor, wanted to invade and
plunder the Cologne diocese with desire and intended to occupy the
mountain called Rheineck, the Cologne elect gave Reinold the order , who
was with the Emperor in Italy, through trusted messengers to the
faithful of the Cologne Church, to take the mountain beforehand. When
the Count Palatine realized that he was being forestalled, he announced
war against the people of Cologne on May 18 on the plain near Andernach.
By mobilizing the Cologne prelates, cavalry squadrons and foot soldiers
as well as ships came together to support the army. There were about
125,000 warriors. Which is why neither the Count Palatine nor anyone
dared to approach when they waited 12 days for his arrival. Friedrich
Barbarossa gave the town of Dairago in the province of Milan to his
Chancellor Rainald von Dassel three weeks after the battle that had been
prevented and did not take place because of immense and innumerable
services. Villas and castles as well as the bones of the Three Kings
from conquered Milan were also given as presents.
The archbishopric of Cologne needed ministeriales from the knightly
ranks for maintenance and guarding and appointed burgraves, although
this position was initially not inheritable. Their selection was not
always a happy one, because there was hardly a tribe of servants that
was less obedient and devoted than the burgraves of Rheineck. Around
1180, the von Ulmen family of knights was probably enfeoffed, and soon
adopted the von Rheineck name. The first burgrave from this family to
receive the inheritable burgraveship of Rheineck as a fief from the
archbishopric at the end of the 13th century was "Johann I von
Rheineck".
From documents we know of the Counts of Rheineck:
Gottfried and Johann I. (1190), here it is about father and son
Henry
I (1200)
John II (1213–1229)
Henry II Berta (before 1237), he
became a benefactor of Laach Abbey. He and his housewife Berta
bequeathed many goods from the burgrave to the monastery
John III
(1237–1245)
Henry III (1245)
Theodoric (1263–1278)
John IV
(1285–1304), the robber baron of Rheineck. He took part in the Battle of
Worringen (1288) on the side of Archbishop Siegfried and was
subsequently taken prisoner. In the dispute over Kaiserswerth Castle
with the archbishop, he was again taken prisoner (1298). Bitter about
Archbishop Wigbold and impoverished by the ransom payments, he became a
highwayman. He robbed the ships on the Rhine and the wagons that passed
his castle. He also maintained friendships with the Archbishop's
enemies, mainly with Count Gerhard von Jülich, who made him Burgmann of
Nideggen Castle. Since it became a nuisance, the Archbishops of Cologne,
Mainz and Trier besieged Rheineck Castle (1301). But when King Albrecht
came to relieve Rheineck, the besiegers withdrew. The king saw Rheineck
as an imperial castle and Johann as a faithful one. After swearing feud
with Archbishop Wigbold, he reinstated him and his descendants as
burgraves
Johann V. 1. Isengard, 2. Margaretha (1315–1351), in 1330
he connected with the two Gerards of Landskron, father and son, with
Diedrich von Schonenburg and Görg von Eich against Simon von Kempenich.
They vowed to provide Elector Baldwin of Trier with 60 armed men until
reconciliation. They form the party "with the red sleeves" in the
so-called "Kempenich feud". The feud only ended with the atonement in
Lahnstein in 1331.
John VI (1368-1381), he met an inglorious end. At
a court camp at Godesberg, on Christmas Day 1381, he stabbed the knight
Rollman von Sinzig to death in the presence of Archbishop Friedrich. The
archbishop then had him publicly beheaded the following day.
John VII
Catherine of Daun (1417–1460)
Diedrich Mezza von Isenburg († 1470)
Jacob I.Wild and Rhine Countess Johannetta († around 1500)
Jacob II.
1. Wilhelmine of Einenberg, ⚭ 2. Elisabeth of Crichingen († 1539). When
Jacob II of the von Rheineck family died without a son in 1539,
Electorate of Cologne under Archbishop Salentin von Isenburg confiscated
the burgrave's office as a defunct fief. In the legal dispute between
Kurköln and the relatives of those from Rheineck, noblemen of Warsberg
(French: de Varsberg), the Imperial Chamber Court ruled in favor of
those from Warsberg in 1567. The inheritance claim arose through
Heinrich von Warsberg's marriage to Metza von Rheineck, the daughter of
Jacob II. Their sons, the brothers Samson and Johann von Warsberg (†
1604), received Rheineck Castle as a fief in 1571.
John (Jean) of
Warsberg (1534–1604)
Samson of Warsberg (1569–1643),[7] son of John
and Colonel in the service of the King of France.
In 1654, Johann
Philipp (Jean Philippe) von Warsberg († 1658) sold the burgraveship of
Rheineck to Count Rudolf von Sinzendorf († 1677) for 7000 ducats. The
lords of Warsberg attached no particular importance to the burgraveship
of Rheineck; Rather, they tried in every possible way to enlarge their
headquarters at that time in the Saarburg.
Rudolf of Sinzendorf (†
1677). The Counts of Sinzendorf belonged to an old, respected Austrian
family. Through this acquisition they wanted to acquire the title of
burgrave and add the coat of arms to their coat of arms. They attached
great importance to the fact that Rheineck had a seat and vote in the
Reichstag in the Westphalian Grafen-Collegio, as well as in the
Kurrheinische Kreis, since they were also appointed to the Cologne state
parliaments as estates of the Archdiocese of Cologne. The successors of
Count Rudolf von Sinzendorf at Rheineck Castle were:
Weickard Michael
Wencelaus († 1715)
Prosper Anton († 1756)
Wenzel Johann Eustach (†
1773)
Prosper (* 1751) was the last burgrave of Rheineck. He later
became prince and burgrave of Winterrieden. The Counts of Sinzendorf
thus remained in the possession of the Burggraviate of Rheineck until
the left bank of the Rhine was taken by French troops.
In the
Peace of Lunéville in 1801, compensation was paid with the village of
Winterrieden in Württemberg and a pension of 1,500 guilders.
In
1805, Rheineck Castle was auctioned off by the French occupation as
expropriated feudal property for CHF 2,870. The new owner became the
head forester Wencelaus Schurp, son of Johann Adam Schurp, who had been
administrator at Rheineck Castle in the service of the Counts of
Sinzendorf since 1749.
Destruction from war and fire
At the
end of 1632, the Swedes under their general Baudissin undertook a
campaign against the city of Andernach from their headquarters in Linz.
In this way, they took Rheineck Castle without a fight and plundered it,
but did not destroy it. During the Palatinate War of Succession
(1688-1697), the French occupied the castle. When they left, they
plundered the castle and set it on fire. The few remains then destroyed
Electoral Cologne soldiers (1692); everything was ruined except for the
keep and the chapel. It was only rebuilt in 1718, albeit on a smaller
scale. In 1785 it was again engulfed in flames, breaking out in a
thatched outbuilding. The wind that prevailed at the time burned down
the entire castle within two and a half hours. It was provisionally
restored for 2000 thalers, but only offered an apartment for the manager
Johann Adam Schurp.
After repeated destruction, the Bonn university professor and later
Prussian Minister of Education Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg
acquired the castle in 1832 from the widow and heir Schurp for 20,000
thalers. The Rheineck Castle was rebuilt on the old floor plan in the
years 1832-1836. However, the building fabric was so dilapidated that
everything had to be removed down to the foundation stones. However, the
client did not want to rebuild a knight's castle, but rather a
comfortable palace in a Romanesque style, based on the chapel in the
gate area, which, with its octagonal shape, was reminiscent of the
Carolingian octagon of Aachen Cathedral. Johann Claudius von Lassaulx
was commissioned to rebuild it. After the demolition of the old
administrator's building, which was attached to and supported the
chapel, large cracks formed in the walls of the chapel. Lassaulx
therefore asked permission to demolish the walls of the chapel as well.
The newly built chapel, which follows the original gate chapel from the
12th century in terms of floor plan and exterior design, was painted by
Edward von Steinle in the years 1838 to 1840. Moritz August von
Bethmann-Hollweg spent the rest of his life at the castle and died there
in 1877; the family mausoleum is on the castle hill. From the Middle
Ages, parts of the ring walls have been preserved, as well as the mighty
keep with its square floor plan and the gate above the entrance.
After the Second World War, in the 1950s, Rheineck Castle was turned
into an excursion destination with a cable car and castle restaurant,
castle tour and tower ascent. In 1975, the investor Herbert Hillebrand,
known as the "Castle King", bought the castle for his daughter Nathalie.
After severe financial losses, the castle stood empty from 1993 until he
sold it to the current owner Kai Krause in 1999, who had it completely
restored.
The castle today
You cannot visit the castle; only
the access on the mountain slope to the gate is possible. This driveway
is part of a designated hiking trail, the Rheinhöhenweg. It continues
via the Reuterslei to Brohl-Lützing, crossing a Celtic refugee castle
with two section walls directly above the castle. However, the castle
cannot be seen from there because of tall trees. From the old access
road, a footpath branches uphill to a historic Jewish cemetery below the
mountaintop on a sloping plateau. Some of the tombstones that stood in
the immediate vicinity of the castle were "relocated" by the
Bethmann-Hollweg family during the renovation and new construction. They
found a new place on the Kesselberg, north of Bad Breisig. The burial
place of the Bethmann-Hollweg family is located in the fenced area of
the castle, which is no longer accessible today.