Marksburg Castle

Marksburg Castle above Braubach is the best castle in the Rhine Valley and one of the most completely preserved medieval fortifications in Germany. The hill castle, rising 160 metres above the town, has been continuously occupied since the 12th century and contains original rooms furnished as they would have been at different periods: a medieval kitchen with working hearth, an armoury with genuine medieval weapons, a torture chamber, and residential quarters.

The guided tour lasts about an hour and is one of the more instructive castle visits in Germany — the guides are knowledgeable and the building is the real thing rather than a 19th-century reconstruction. The Deutsche Burgenvereinigung (German Castle Association) has been based here since 1900 and is responsible for the castle's exceptional maintenance. Braubach station on the Koblenz-Mainz line is a ten-minute walk from the entrance, making Marksburg easy to include in a train journey along the valley.

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A story
The Marksburg is the only medieval castle on the entire Rhine that was never destroyed or significantly rebuilt — it never fell to an enemy and was never demolished for stone. Most Rhine castles were razed during the Thirty Years War or the French Revolutionary Wars; the Marksburg survived because it was difficult to attack and because the town of Braubach below it quietly surrendered to each occupying army rather than resist.