Medelsheim Castle

Burg Medelsheim stands on the edge of Medelsheim village in the Gersheim district of the Saarpfalz-Kreis. The site once guarded the medieval salt road known as the Duser Straße. The counts of Zweibrücken built the castle around 1300 to protect travellers and trade along this route. In 1334 Count Walram II of Zweibrücken first called the settlement a town with a castle. By the 17th century the place had shrunk to a single reference in a leyensche document. Excavations have shown where the walls once rose opposite today’s parish church of St Martin. The last written record of a functioning castle comes from 1576. Earlier, in 1656, a leyensche deed mentions the site but gives no details of buildings. After that the stone was reused elsewhere and the earthworks slowly faded. Visitors today see open ground where archaeologists have plotted the foundations. The church of St Martin still stands on the site once protected by the castle. A low rise marks the former moat and a gravel path follows the line of the old ramparts. From here the view stretches across the village rooftops towards the surrounding farmland.