Battenberg Castle () is a castle

ruin Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

near Battenberg in the county of

Bad Dürkheim Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. It is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim (district), Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and the site of the discovery of the element caesium, in 1860. Geogra ...

in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Location

The castle stands on a foothill of the Haardt range of sandstone hills which rises abruptly from the Rhine Plain on the north-eastern edge of the

Palatinate Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate (region), Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatina ...

. Together with the small village of the same name, immediately to the west, it is above sea level, above the right bank of the Eckbach stream. Below the castle, by the ochre-coloured rocks bordering the winding approach road, the so-called ''Blitzröhren'' (literally "lightning pipes") reach the surface. These are not true

fulgurite Fulgurites (), commonly called "fossilized lightning", are natural tubes, clumps, or masses of sintered, vitrified, or fused soil, sand, rock, organic debris and other sediments that sometimes form when lightning discharges into ground. Whe ...

s caused by lightning strikes, but columns of hard, iron-rich mineral exposed by

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

and

sintering Sintering or frittage is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by pressure or heat without melting it to the point of liquefaction. Sintering happens as part of a manufacturing process used with metals, ceramics, plas ...

of the softer

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. The Haardtrand-Im Baumgarten nature reserve borders the eastern slopes of the castle hill.

History

It is presumed that the castle was constructed by Count Frederick III of Leiningen (d. 1287), and it remained a possession of the

House of Leiningen The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Imp ...

- until 1689, when it was destroyed during the

War of the Palatine Succession The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between France and the Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial possessions in the Americas, India, and West Africa. Relat ...

by French troops. Together with

Neuleiningen Castle Neuleiningen Castle is a ruin on the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest in the States of Germany, state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany in the Municipalities of Germany, municipality of Neuleiningen in the Bad Dürkheim (district), Bad D ...

, on the opposite hillside metres to the north, it controlled access to the Eckbach valley. To the south-east, upstream, stands the Leiningen family seat of

Altleiningen Altleiningen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The municipality lies at an e ...

Layout

On three sides the outer walls of the castle follow the edge of the steep-sided

hill spur A spur is a lateral ridge or tongue of land descending from a hill, mountain or main crest of a ridge. It can also be defined as another hill or mountain range which projects in a lateral direction from a main hill or mountain range. Examples of ...

. The wall on the fourth side was protected by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

, now completely filled in. Surviving structures include: the outer walls, a

gate tower A gate tower is a tower built over or next to a major gateway. Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on either side of a ...

on the western side near the northwest corner of the site, a

battery tower A battery tower was a defensive tower built into the outermost defences of many castles, usually in the 16th century or later, after the advent of firearms. Its name is derived from the word battery, a group of several cannon A cannon is a ...

with

embrasure An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of Age of Gunpowder, gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a sp ...

in the centre of the south side, and the vaulted cellar and foundations of a large dwelling. Attached to this is a

staircase tower A staircase tower or stair tower (, also ''Stiegenturm'' or ''Wendelstein'') is a tower-like wing of a building with a circular or polygonal plan that contains a stairwell, usually a helical staircase. History Only a few examples of staircase ...

, erected in the 16th century, which is still standing. The ruins are in private ownership but there is limited public access. A visit is repaid with views across the Rhine Plain, the ''Bergstrasse'' and the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried' ...

File:View of the Upper Rhine Plain from Battenberg Castle.jpg, left, View of the Upper Rhine Plain from Battenberg Castle

References

Literature

External links

{{Commons category, Burg Battenberg
Website of Battenberg parish with sights in text and images
Landmarks in Germany Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Ruined castles in Germany