Pyrmont Castle

Burg Pyrmont stands on a slate rock above the Elzbach waterfall in the southern Eifel mountains. It overlooks the valley near Roes and Pillig, west of Münstermaifeld. The castle was built at the end of the 12th century by Cuno of Schönburg on count palatine land. Its first written record dates from 1225. The round bergfried, 24.5 metres high, was the first of its kind along the Middle Rhine. A 49-metre-deep castle well lies within its shadow. The castle passed through many hands after disputes among heirs in the 15th and 17th centuries. The Eltz family owned it for a time before the Waldbott of Bassenheim family gained control in the 17th century. They began converting the medieval fortress into a baroque residence in 1712. French troops seized the castle during the Revolution and it was sold in 1810. After several owners, architects Helmut Hentrich and Hubert Petschnigg bought the ruins in 1963 and began restoration. Visitors now walk through the rebuilt inner bailey and climb the bergfried for views over the Eifel. The palas contains an entrance hall, a great hall and smaller rooms, with remains of the castle chapel nearby. The cookhouse on the ground floor houses a reconstructed kitchen. Below the castle, traces of 18th-century vineyards and a fish pond mark the old garden. The outer bailey holds a souvenir shop, and the deep neck ditch and Zwinger walls still guard the inner fortress.