The Rietburg is a ruined

hillside castle A hillside castle is a castle built on the side of a hill above much of the surrounding terrain but below the summit itself. It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century. As a result of the particu ...

on the 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 ...

above the village of Rhodt in the county of Südliche Weinstrasse in the German 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 ...

. The remains of this castle are located on the side of the 613-metre-high Blättersberg mountain.

Geography

The Rietburg stands at a height of 535 metres above sea level on the northeastern flanks of the 618-metre-high Blättersberg, a peak in the Haardt mountains that form the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest. There is a car park at the foot of the Blättersberg near Villa Ludwigshöhe. This may be reached by taking the

Edenkoben Edenkoben () is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It lies approximately halfway between Landau and Neustadt an der Weinstraße. Edenkoben is one of the towns situated along the German Wine R ...

exit off the A 65 motorway from

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig's Port upon the Rhine"; Palatine German dialects, Palatine German: ''Ludwichshafe''), is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the German state of Rh ...

), then following the road to ''Rhodt'' and, subsequently to ''Rietburg''. A chairlift, the '' Rietburgbahn'' runs up the mountain.

Description

All that has survived of the castle is part of the

shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...

, parts of the

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...

and the ''

zwinger A () is an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the medieval and early modern periods to improve the defence of castles and town walls. The term is usually left untranslated, ...

''.

History

Construction

The construction of Rietburg castle is dated to the period 1200 to 1204 and ascribed to the lords of Riet. These noblemen were initially

vassals A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...

of the North Alsatian Benedictine abbey of Weißenburg, later they became ''

ministeriales The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a legally unfree but socially elite class of knights, administrators, and officials in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire, drawn from a mix of servile origins, free commoners, and ...

'' and feudatories of the then German

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

lords. The family came from the region between

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

and

Germersheim Germersheim () is a town in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim (district), Germersheim district. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer, Landau, Philippsburg, Karlsru ...

and had taken their name from their place of origin along the

River Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Swiss-Austrian border. From Lake Const ...

that had been colonised by

reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * Re ...

s (German: ''Riet'' = "reed"). They were first mentioned in 1149 in a deed belonging to the South Palatine abbey of

Eußerthal Eußerthal is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district of Rhineland-Palatinate, 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 th ...

. The castle was built by Conrad II of Riet, the eldest of six sons of Conrad I and his wife, Adelheid, whom he married in 1184.

Hostage taking and loss

Following the death of Conrad II, his cousin, Hermann of Riet, inherited the lordship of the castle (''Burgherrschaft''). In the conflicts that broke out after 1250 between the Hohenstaufens and the

Welfs The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meuse-Mo ...

he remained a Hohenstaufen follower and went down in history as the result of a political

hostage taking A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

: in 1255 he took the Welf Queen Elisabeth, wife of the German king,

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

hostage, together with her escort during a journey from the episcopal town of Worms to the imperial castle of Trifels near the village of Edesheim. She was imprisoned at the Rietburg. A coalition of regional princes and towns forced him to release his prisoners on 4 December 1255. Hermann escaped with his life, but his castle was seized from him and declared an imperial castle that was under the immediate suzerainty of the king. Its first vassal was the Upper Alsatian ''

Landvogt A ''Vogt'' (plural ''Vögte'') was a title and office in the Old Swiss Confederacy, inherited from the feudal system of the Holy Roman Empire, corresponding to the English '' reeve''. The German term ''Vogtei'' is ultimately a loan from Latin '' ...

'', Otto III of Ochsenstein. When his daughter married Emich V of Leiningen-Landeck, the castle went in the 1280s to a branch 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 ...

. Later, ownership passed to the

Bishopric of Speyer The Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, formerly known as Spires in English, (German: ''Hochstift Speyer, Fürstbistum Speyer, Bistum Speyer'') was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wür ...

Decline

In 1470, during the Weißenburg Feud between Prince-Elector Frederick the Victorious of the Palatinate and his cousin, Duke Louis the Black of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, the Rietburg was shelled by Leiningen troops and badly damaged, but remained inhabitable. The castle survived the Palatine Peasants' War of 1525 unscathed, but was finally destroyed during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

(1618–48) and never rebuilt.

Excavations and preservation measures

During excavations in 1872, 580 gold and silver coins were found, dating to the 16th century. In 1925 the municipality of Rhodt carried out comprehensive preservation work in order to prevent the further ruin of the Rietburg. In 1931 the Palatine Forest Club built a refuge hut in the castle and, in 1955, the castle restaurant was built. Since 1991 the Rietburg Club has worked on the conservation of the site. For example, in 2012 25,000 € was invested in a wooden bridge over the historic

neck ditch A neck ditch (), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable b ...

. Die Rheinpfalz, ''Südwestdeutsche Zeitung'', 14 May 2012

Legend

According to the

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

of the robber baron at the Rietburg ''"Once a robber baron lived at the castle (which was also called the ''altes Schloss'' or "old palace"); he was said to be a "wild vulture with the hideous face of Satan." He lay in wait for people and dragged them off to his eyrie as booty. He was especially hated by the women. One day he robbed a young girl who was gentle as a dove. The girl's father went with some followers up to the castle and tried in vain to storm it. The baron stood was on the battlements laughing and demanded a ransom from the girl's father. For a large amount of gold and valuable mineral ore he would get his daughter back. After the ransom was paid, the baron gave the father his daughter back - by throwing her off the

battlement A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...

s. As the girl lay dashed to pieces on the ground, the robber burst out laughing. At this, all the "warriors" stormed the castle en masse and chased the baron off the wall. Ever since, the evil spirit of the baron has had to restlessly run through the night."''

Present use

Tourism

Since 1954, a

chair lift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers. They are the primary on-hill tran ...

, known as the ''Rietburgbahn'' has run from the

Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

up to a terrace on the eastern side of the Rietburg. The return journey offers good views over the plain. The bottom station is accessible on foot or by car and is located near the ''

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...

'' of Villa Ludwigshöhe, a stately residence built from 1846 to 1852 by order of Louis I of Bavaria. The

top station A top station or upper stationFor example, se''Chairlift Blausee (upper station)''at www.outdooractive.com. Retrieved 15 May 2019. is usually the highest station of an aerial lift, a funicular, a T-bar lift or a rack railway. The lowest station is ...

of the Rietburgbahn lies just a few steps away from the castle ruins and a pub, the ''Höhengaststätte Rietburg'' has been incorporated into it, which has an open-air terrace with extensive views over the Rhine Plain. From here the whole

Bergstraße Route Bergstraße or Bergstrasse can refer to: * Bergstraße Route, literally "Mountain Road", in the Odenwald of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, Germany *Bergstraße (district) Bergstraße (, ) is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. It ...

may be seen across the plain from

Melibokus The Melibokus (also ''Melibocus'', ''Malchen'' or ''Malschen'') is at 517 metres (1696 feet), the highest hill in the Bergstraße region of southern Hesse, central Germany. It was also the name of a hill in Germania described by classical ...

in the north to the Königstuhl near

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. The view continues to Steinsberg near

Sinsheim Sinsheim (; ) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the Rhine Neckar Area of the state Baden-Württemberg about southeast of Heidelberg and about northwest of Heilbronn in the district Rhein-Neckar. Geography Overview Sinsheim consists o ...

, the highest point of the

Kraichgau The Kraichgau () is a hilly region in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Odenwald and the Neckar to the North, the Black Forest to the South, and the Upper Rhine Plain to the West. To the east, its boundary is c ...

region; and in clear visibility the Heuchelberg and Stromberg may be seen. To the southeast is the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest () refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north by a line from Karlsruh ...

from the Badener Höhe via the Mehliskopf to the

Hornisgrinde The Hornisgrinde, 1,164 m (3,820 ft), is the highest mountain in the Northern Black Forest of Germany. The Hornisgrinde lies in northern Ortenaukreis district. Origin of the name The name is probably derived from Latin, and essenti ...

. In exceptionally clear weather, the tall houses of Frankfurt ( Westendstraße 1) may be seen to the far north-northeast, to the east

Katzenbuckel The Katzenbuckel (; 626 metres) is an extinct volcano and the highest elevation in the Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is locate ...

(immediately left of the Königstuhl) and to the south-southeast, the

Central Black Forest The Central Black Forest (), also called the Middle Black Forest, is a natural or cultural division of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It generally refers to a region of deeply incised valleys from the Rench valley and southern ...

as far as Kenzingen, where the Black Forest descends eastwards into the ''

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Bay''.

Sport

The Rietburg is the venue for the International Rietburg Hill Run every September, a race which is part of the Palatine Hill Running Cup. It is 8,200 metres long and climbs 420 metres.

Vineyard

A major local vineyard, which is in the Palatine wine region, has been named ''Rietburg'' after the castle.

Literature

* * *

References

External links

Ortsgemeinde Rhodt unter Rietburg: ''Die Rietburg''

Rietburgverein: ''Rietburg''

Artist's impression
by Wolfgang Braun * {{Ebidat, 98 Landmarks in Germany Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Ruined castles in Germany