Schloss Simmern

Schloss Simmern stands in the town of Simmern in the Hunsrück region of Rheinland-Pfalz. The first record of a castle there comes from 1311 under the Raugrafen. In 1358 the site passed to the Palatinate counts, and in 1410 Stefan of Pfalz-Simmern-Zweibrücken made it the seat of his new duchy. His son Friedrich I turned the fortress into a residence, where 125 servants worked by 1595. The old castle had a rectangular plan, a moat, a garden and a separate building called the Red House that housed a printing works and mint. The original castle was blown up in 1689 during the War of the Palatine Succession. A new building rose between 1708 and 1713 as the residence of the Palatinate’s chief official. Napoléon gave the property to the town in 1802, and it later served as court, school, barracks and prison. The surviving structure has a central block and two projecting wings, with traces of the old castle pond still visible around the site. Inside, visitors find a large festival hall, a room for senior citizens, the Hunsrück Museum, the registrar’s wedding room and the town library. The attic displays works by the painter and sculptor Friedrich Karl Ströher. Copper engravings show the lost medieval castle with its moat and garden, while the present building’s wings frame a quiet courtyard.