Burg Rolandseck

A medieval watch-post guards the last narrows of the Rhine where the valley broadens toward the lowlands. The ruin stands on a basalt crag 155 metres above the river, its single standing window known as the Rolandsbogen. Below, the islands of Grafenwerth and Nonnenwerth lie anchored in the current, while across the water the peaks of the Siebengebirge rise with Drachenfels and Petersberg.

The arch once formed part of a 12th-century fortress built by Archbishop Friedrich I of Cologne to seal the southern border of his territory. A 17th-century earthquake left only the window intact, and in 1839 the poet Ferdinand Freiligrath rallied readers to rebuild it. The Cologne master builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner supplied the plans, and the restored arch became a symbol of Romantic Rhine scenery.

Visitors reach the crag by a path that winds through the old castle ditch. The Romanesque masonry of the upper ward has been uncovered in the Freiligrath Hall, and the southern curtain wall, nearly 900 years old, has been rebuilt in dry stone. From the terrace beside the arch the view stretches upriver to Unkel and Oberwinter, down to Bad Honnef, and across to the twin islands below.