Schloss Liebeneck

Schloss Liebeneck stands above the village of Osterspai in the Rhein-Lahn district of Rhineland-Palatinate. It began as a small fortified house called Grauborn around 1590 for the Lords of Liebenstein. After the family moved in, the name changed to Liebeneck and the site became their main residence. In 1637 the line died out and the estate passed to the Schenckern family of Waldenburg. Later it was granted to Georg Ernst Ludwig von Preuschen for drafting the Nassau inheritance treaty. The castle became a summer home in the 19th century when the family turned it into a fideicommiss. The modern building dates from 1873–75 when Joseph Balthasar Fuchs rebuilt the ruins in Neo-Renaissance style. French troops damaged the house after the First World War and it was repaired. In 1960 a hotelier took a lease, and in 1972 the Schnierle family bought it and made it their private home. Today visitors can only view the exterior. The new castle is two storeys high with a round tower on the north-east corner. Its brick walls sit on a stone foundation and the north front carries a double door topped by the Preuschen-Schwartzenau coat of arms. A park surrounds the building, and a family cemetery and the Grauborn spring lie nearby. Remains of the old kitchen wing and chapel survive in the foundations. A path once led down to the Rhine where a pavilion stood on Camper Spitze, offering views of Burg Liebenstein across the water.