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HARDENBURG
CASTLE
Castle Ruins of the Pfalzerwald Eisenach Valley
Hardenburg
Castle which dominates the green hills along the road which follows the
Eisenach
River
through the thick forested mountains of the Pflazer Wald
Nature Park between Bad Durkheim and Kaiserslautern, is one of the largest
castle ruins in the western Rhineland-Palatine. The fortress castle at Hardenburg
(not to be confused with Hardenberg in Lower-Saxony) was first constructed
by the Counts of Leiningen-Hardenburg, on land belonging to the Benedictine
monastery at Limburg a few miles away when Count Friedrich I of Leiningen was
granted 
governorship of the abbey by
King Phillip of Swabia in 1205. The abbots protested at first to the building
of the castle, but relented to the protectorship
in 1249. As the Leiningen family grew in stature and power (England’s
Queen Victoria was a half-sister of Prince Karl of Leiningen in later days),
the original 13th Century fortress was reconstructed in the Renaissance period
into the large castle it appears today, in red stone, typical of the area like
the Burg Frankenstein ruin further west (see Frankenstein
Village Castle Palatine).
Hardenburg
Castle is probably best known for its “ball tower” with
cannon balls imbedded in its stone masonry to impress any attackers of
its impregnability to artillery. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really.
The castle was taken by Napoleon’s army and most of its buildings
destroyed in the 1795, leaving the great walls remaining.
The Princes of Leiningen had already moved
their primary residence to a more comfortable Baroque palace in Bad Durkheim.
A vaulted ceiling cellar and some other rooms are most of what remains
of the living quarters of the castle. A distinctive feature of the castle
is the great
broad formal terrace of the former residence over-looking the wooded canyon
of the Eisenach.
To
reach Hardenburg Castle is a 10 minute drive from Bad Durkheim (see Bad
Durkheim Wine
Road), or about 30 minutes from Kaiserslautern.
There is a road leading to a parking area near the ruin, or a hiking
trail up
from the village below from the parking lot of the modern town hall.
The approach
to the castle is fairly unique as the walking trail leads through a tunnel
under the walls and along the slope above the river road below. The castle
is open daily with a nominal admission charge of about 2€ to
go inside the castle chambers, though the grounds and terrace can be explored
without
charge. © Bargain
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See
Also:
AUSWANDERUNG
MUSEUM - KAISERSLAUTERN
GIANT
WINE BARREL RESTAURANT -- BAD DURKHEIM
HEIDELBERG CASTLE “The Beautiful Ruin”
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