Trutzburg Blideneck

Trutzburg Blideneck stands on a narrow ridge 325 metres above sea level between two small streams, Dolsitbach and Herrnsbach. It lies two kilometres south-east of Ransel, a district of Lorch on the Middle Rhine in the Rheingau-Taunus district. The only remains are a neck ditch and faint traces of walls and stonework. The absence of rubble suggests the buildings were mainly timber.

Built in 1279 by the Archbishop of Mainz, it was a war-engine fort fitted with a trebuchet aimed at Burg Rheinberg half a kilometre to the north. The plan was to block the single approach road to Rheinberg and force its surrender. After a short siege in 1280 the Rheingraf Siegfried of Rheinberg was captured, but the castle was rebuilt almost at once.

Once Rheinberg fell, the Archbishop tried to keep Blideneck manned. He secured two local nobles, Count Adolf of Nassau and Emmerich of Heppenheft, as castellans in July and August 1280. With the archbishop’s death later that year the post lost all purpose. No further records survive and the site was left to decay.