Castle of the Week 43 - Reichenstein
Castle Reichenstein is situated high up in the
wine producing village of Trechtlinghausen in the Rhine Valley
between Bingen and Koblenz. The oldest buildings indicate
foundations from the early 11th century. At that time the region
belonged to the abbey "Kornelimuenster" near Aachen and was a
gift from Ludwig the Pious. The abbey appointed castellans for
the administration and safeguarding of its rights. One of these
castellans was the knight Rheinbodo (1151 - 1196) and his
descendants. His son Gerhard of Rheinbodo, was a robber-knight
and rampaged
through the region demanding goods
violently from travellers, till he was disposed of in 1213. His
successor was the knight Philipp von Bolanden. In the year 1241,
Philipp von Hohenfels became the new castellan and turned out to
be the worst robber-knight of his time. In 1253 the Archbishop of
Mainz and the army of the Rhenish town association conquered and
destroyed Reichenstein. Philipp von Hohenstein thereupon
surrendered and promised good conduct. He used the following
period to rebuild Reichenstein stronger and more defensive than
ever before, ascended to the high office of Imperial Vicar and
carried on with robbing during these politically unstable times
and began to steal church property. As a consequence the
Archbishop of Mainz banned him from church.
After Philipp's death in 1277 his son Dietrich
von Hohenfels inherited the castle and put his robber-knight
father in the shadows. First with the election of Rudolf of
Habsburg to the German king, the interregnum ended and with that,
the time of the robber-knights of the Rhine. In 1282 the new king
besieged the castle Reichenstein. Nevertheless he did not
succeed in storming the stronghold, but he
forced the garrison to surrender by means of starvation after 4
years of siege. 1290 the castle was burned down and Dietrich von
Hohenfels escaped. The king had forbidden Reichenstein to be
rebuilt, but despite that it was restored. In 1344 the emperor
Ludwig IV awarded the castle to the Archbishop of Mainz. Until
the end of the 18th century, Mainz remained its sole possessor.
In 1361 there were once again restless times and
Gottfried of Leiningen, the archbishop, found refuge in the
castle. Only after long continuous negotiations could new bloody
quarrels be prevented. After that the castle was spared from wars
over the centuries. With the invention and development of
firearms it had lost its military importance and fell apart
little by little.
After various changes of ownership the stronghold at last passed into the possession of the family of Baron Kirsch-Puricelli in 1899, who started to rebuild castle Reichenstein between 1899 and 1902. The restoration was based on old foundation drawings and on views of the castle from the 17th and 18th centuries. In this way, the reconstruction of the main building was authentic. Reichenstein remained in the family's possession for over 90 years until it was sold in 1987 and parts of the outer castle were converted in a hotel. The center piece of the castle is a museum now.
Write-up provided by Hanarky. Pictures courtesy of Burgenwelt
|
Previous Index Next |