The Bertradaburg is a

ruined Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

hill castle A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles ...

on a rock spur, , above the village of

Mürlenbach Mürlenbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Gerolstein, wh ...

in the county of

Vulkaneifel Vulkaneifel () is a district (''Kreis'') in the northwest of the state Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the least densely populated district in the state and the fourth most sparsely populated district in Germany. The administrative centre of ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. It thus stands in the geographical centre of

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

Francia Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...

History

The castle was built on the remains of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

castrum In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a po ...

'', which probably guarded the

Roman road from Trier to Cologne The Roman road from Trier to Cologne is part of the ''Via Agrippa'', a Roman era long distance road network, that began at Lyon. The section from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) to the CCAA (Cologne), the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inf ...

. In the castle, according to local tradition, Bertrada, the mother of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

is said to have lived which implies that his birth was around 747 AD. The existence of the castle is first recorded in the 13th century when it is mentioned as a state fortress of the princely imperial abbey of Prüm (c.f. the Middle Rhine Register or ''Mittelrheinisches Urkundenbuch''), archaeological finds have indicated that there were earlier fortifications on the site. After Prüm Abbey was occupied and damaged by French Revolutionary troops from 1794 to 1802, Mürlenbach's castle was seized as part of the forced

secularisation In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

of the abbey estate and auctioned by France to a private owner. In the late 20th century, the surviving castle walls and buildings were restored by the Tiepelmann family and the state-owned, 30-metre-high, ruined double tower gate was rebuilt with state finance. In 2009, the nine owners were given a grant from the federal and state budgets to secure and maintain the 16th-century, five-metre-thick, southwest

roundel A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of differ ...

. The 13th-century

shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...

was also renovated with funding from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Description and present use

The 30-metre-high

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, the double tower gateway of the Betradaburg, is visible from a long way off. It has good views of the surrounding countryside and may be visited as part of a guided tour. Every year the Mürlenbach Castle Festival (''Mürlenbacher Burgfest'') takes place. The castle is privately owned and has holiday apartments which are currently being renovated.

External links

{{Commonscat, Bertradaburg
Website of the castle
Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Vulkaneifel