Ruins of Ehrenfels Castle

History

At the end of the Rheingau, the Rhine bends sharply from its course westwards towards the north. There, about 80 metres above the water level at river kilometre 530.2, lies the ruin of Ehrenfels Castle. It rises near Rüdesheim on the Rhine as a landmark at the entrance to the 67-kilometre-long UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It is the prelude, so to speak, to a large density of castles lined up in rows that characterise this ancient cultural landscape in the narrow break of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. They are actually rebuilt mountain castles with hotels and restaurants. Or they are the remains of destroyed castles as sights.

Ehrenfels, surrounded by vineyards, is one such castle. Its old glory was extinguished because the French “Sun King” Louis XIV (1638-1715), who was a warlike prince, left little of it standing. When he laid claim to the extinct Counts Palatine of Lautern and of Simmern in the War of the Palatinate Succession, his troops covered the areas with a brutal military strategy.

Scorched Earth

The castle fell victim to the “scorched earth” on 30 May 1689, and today it provides little information about its original architectural condition. Despite several sieges, it survived the Thirty Years’ War from 1618-1648 largely unscathed.

The “castrum in Erenvails” was a jewel and more castle than fortress. A depiction in the “Thesaurus philopoliticus” or “Political Treasure Chest” from the middle of the 17th century, probably gives a good representation of its beautiful shape.

"castrum in Erenvails"

Between 1208 and 1220, Philip III of Bolanden probably built it in place of a previous building. There are no further documents about it – it only appears in writing when his widow had to hand it over to his former employer, the archbishop of Mainz.

The trapezoidal inner bailey with a narrow courtyard had an elongated, three-storey palas facing the Rhine as well as a colossal shield wall with battlements and two round towers on the northern slope rising to the Niederwald. A moat protected this side.

Reconstruction and Extensions in the late Middle Ages

In the 14th century, when the archbishops and electors of Mainz used it as a residence and temporary stronghold for the cathedral treasure, it was rebuilt for the first time and later extended to the east. New upper storeys and crowns were added to the flanking towers, which were now 33 metres high, a second battlement and, behind a circular wall, another residential building next to a gateway, and finally an additional gate with a drawbridge.

On the banks of the Rhine, at the foot of the castle, there were houses that had not been preserved, for Ehrenfels also fulfilled the function of a customs revenue centre for the Mainz archbishopric, the cathedral chapter and other beneficiaries as early as the early 14th century.

There Was No Getting past This Station

This also included the “Mäuseturm” (Mouse Tower) on an offshore island. All in all, a perfect clamp on the difficult-to-pass Binger Loch in the Rhine, along which merchant ships made only slow progress. The toll tower, which became the Mouse Tower through a legend, can be visited, the ruins of Ehrenfels Castle unfortunately only from the outside. A pair of falcons has been breeding there for many years and in case of doubt, nature conservation takes precedence over tourism.