Altwied Castle

Burg Altwied stands on a narrow rock spur above the Wied valley in northern Rhineland-Palatinate. The ruined hilltop fortress once formed a single defensive unit with the nearby village of Altwied, its walls and towers guarding the steep slopes on three sides. The Wied flows around the base of the crag, creating a natural barrier that made the site easy to defend. The castle was begun before 1129 by Metfried, count in the Engersgau, and enlarged in the 12th and 13th centuries by his descendants. By 1259 a chapel dedicated to Saint George stood inside the walls, and the village below was surrounded by its own ring of defences. The counts used the site as a high court and local administrative centre until the late 17th century, when they moved their residence downstream to Neuwied. Today the ruins show a broad, squat keep rising above the valley, its thick walls still standing to sixteen metres. A paved courtyard holds the restored well, while the so-called Frauenhaus in the north-west corner preserves walls nearly twenty metres high. The outer curtain once enclosed both castle and village, but only fragments remain of the surrounding defences.