Osterspai Castle

Burg Osterspai stands beside the Rhine in the village of Osterspai, a medieval water-burg now reduced to its massive stone keep and a small chapel. The keep was built about 1302 by Heinrich I of Sponheim and enlarged around 1400, while the chapel dates from 1267 as part of an Eberbach monastery farm. The site passed through the hands of the Liebenstein, Waldenburg and Preuschen families, and in 2002 became part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site. The keep’s thick walls still rise above the vineyards that now cover the old bailey, and the chapel preserves early Gothic wall paintings linked to the Limburger Dom. In 1909 the ruined tower was turned into a summer house by Freiherr Ludwig von Preuschen, who added a half-timbered extension in the local style. After the First World War the same architect enlarged it into a year-round home for the Preuschen family, who still live there today. A short walk from the keep brings visitors to the Burggarten, a walled vineyard plot managed by a local association that organises concerts and cultural events. The chapel of St Jakobus, with its double-storey nave and faded 13th-century murals, can be viewed by arrangement. Beyond the walls the Rhine flows past, linking the site to the broader heritage landscape of the Middle Rhine.