Burg Wörth

The Burg Wörth once stood on the Wörth rock in the middle of the Danube island Wörth near Neustadtl an der Donau. It formed part of an old toll and security system along the Danube in the Strudengau. The castle controlled a key point where the river narrows and currents grow dangerous. Built as a Danube barrier in the 14th century by Chunrat von Werd, it may already have had 12th-century origins under the Lords of Perg and Machland. From here and from Burg Werfenstein chains could be stretched across the river to block shipping. When the Greinburg was refounded in 1510 and the Danube toll moved downstream, Burg Wörth was abandoned and left to decay. Little remains today: a small core of walls about twenty by ten metres, one metre thick, clinging to the rock. On the highest point of the ruin stands the Wörth cross, erected in 1552 and still standing. Parts of the rock were blasted away during Danube works in the late 18th century, yet fragments of the old enceinte survive.