The Wilgartaburg, also called the ''Wiligartaburg, Wilgartsburg'' or ''Wiligartisburg'', is the

heritage site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

of a

ruined 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 ...

rock castle A rock castle () is a type of medieval castle that directly incorporates natural rock outcrops into its defences to such an extent that the rock formations define the structure of the castle. Topographically, rock castles are classified as hill ...

located at a height of near the German village of

Wilgartswiesen Wilgartswiesen is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. Geography The municipality lies in the southern part of the Palatine Forest, the German part of the Wasgau, in the middle of the Palatine For ...

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 ...

Location

The remains of the former

hill castle A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles a ...

are located near Wilgartswiesen before the

Rinnthal Rinnthal is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. During the Revolution of 1848, the town was the setting for a battle between Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a ...

at around 245 metres above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

on a spur of the Göckelberg hill above the

River Queich The Queich is a tributary of the Rhine, which rises in the southern part of the Palatinate Forest, and flows through the Upper Rhine valley to its confluence with the Rhine in Germersheim. It is long and is one of the four major drainage systems ...

. This left tributary of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, 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 Austria–Swit ...

rises in the

Wasgau The Wasgau (, ) is a France, Franco-Germany, German Mountain range, hill range in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French departments of France, departments of Bas-Rhin and Moselle (department), Moselle. It is formed from the south ...

region which comprises the southern part 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 ...

in Germany and the northern part of the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

in France.

History

The Wilgartaburg is one of the oldest castles in the

Palatinate region The Palatinate (; ; Palatine German: ''Palz''), or the Rhenish Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''), is a historical region of Germany. The Palatinate occupies most of the southern quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (''Rheinla ...

, probably dating to the 8th or 9th century. According to an unverified source it was built in the late 10th or early 11th century by an

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Hornbach Abbey, initially as a wooden castle. In the

Salian The Salian dynasty or Salic dynasty () was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages. The dynasty provided four kings of Germany (1024–1125), all of whom went on to be crowned Holy Roman emperors (1027–1125). After the death of the last Ottonian ...

era (11th century) it was rebuilt in stone. This was expanded in the 12th century and a final remodelling took place in the 13th century. The castle was probably abandoned at the end of the 13th century in favour of the better situated Falkenburg Castle. According to legend, after the death of her husband, Gaugrave Wernher I, his widow, Wiligarta, led a hermit's life here as penance to atone for his dissolute life. On 16 April 828, her granddaughter, also called Wiligarta and the daughter of Wernher II, donated her estate, ''Wiligartawisa'', with all the fields, pastureland and woods within which the castle stood, to Hornbach Abbey.

Layout

All that survives of the castle are a few wall remains, numerous

putlog hole Putlog holes or putlock holes are small holes made in the walls of structures to receive the ends of poles (small round logs) or beams, called putlogs or putlocks, to support a scaffolding. Putlog holes may extend through a wall to provide stagin ...

s and rock chambers.

Literature

* Helmut Bernhard, Dieter Barz: ''Frühe Burgen in der Pfalz. Ausgewählte Beispiele salischer Wehranlagen''. In: Horst Wolfgang Böhme: ''Burgen der Salierzeit in Hessen, in Rheinland-Pfalz und im Saarland''. In: ders. (ed.): ''Burgen der Salierzeit, Teil 2: In den südlichen Landschaften des Reiches''. Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum Monographien 26. Verlag Thorbecke. Sigmaringen, 1991. pp. 125–175 * {{citation, surname1=Marco Bollheimer, title=Felsenburgen im Burgenparadies Wasgau–Nordvogesen , edition=3., publisher=Selbstverlag, publication-place=Karlsruhe, pages=46 f, isbn=978-3-9814506-0-6, date= 2011, language=German * Arndt Hartung: ''Pfälzer Burgenrevier''. p. 78, Ludwigshafen, 1985 * Walter Ehescheid: ''Pfälzisches Burgen-Lexikon IV.2 St-Z''. pp. 334–240, Kaiserslautern, 2007 * Walter Eitelmann: ''Rittersteine im Pfälzerwald''. p. 50, Neustadt, 1998 * Friedrich-Wilhelm Krahe: ''Burgen des Deutschen Mittelalters''. p. 670, Augsburg, 1996

External links

Wilgartaburg at hinterweidenthal.de

Artist's impression of the castle in medieval times
Ruined castles in Germany Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Buildings and structures in the Palatinate Forest South Palatinate Buildings and structures in Südwestpfalz