Klopp Castle (german: Burg Klopp) is a castle in the town of Bingen am Rhein in the

Upper Middle Rhine Valley The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rüdesheim in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in Germany. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage S ...

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 ...

, Germany. In the nineteenth century, the

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German ...

(similar to a

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

) from the original medieval fortified castle was restored and a new building added which houses the town's administration.

History

The castle stands on a hill above the town with a wide-ranging view, which may have been the site of a Roman fortification built by Nero Claudius Drusus at ''Bingium'' around 10 CE.Robert R. Taylor, ''The Castles of the Rhine: Recreating the Middle Ages in Modern Germany'', Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1998,
p. 291
Monk Gibbon, ''The Rhine and its Castles'', London: Putnam, 1957, OCLC 1327080
p. 140
''Drusenburg'' or ''Drususburg'' was an early name for the castle.''Deutsche Bauzeitung'' 66, 13 August 1881, vol. 1
p. 371
The hill is one of three locations where local legend says that

Emperor Henry IV Henry IV (german: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son ...

was imprisoned by his son in 1105 or 1106, this being the first surviving mention of a castle there.Michael Fuhr, ''Wer will des Stromes Hüter sein? 40 Burgen und Schlösser am Mittelrhein: ein Führer'', Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Rheinland-Pfalz, Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland-Pfalz, Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2002,
p. 18
Bingen (Merian)

The last medieval castle on the site was built in the 13th century: possibly around 1281, possibly between 1240, when ''Kloppberg'' (Klopp Hill) is mentioned as the residence of a churchman, and 1277, the first mention of ''Burg Clopp''. Together with Ehrenfels Castle on the opposite side of the Rhine and later the Mouse Tower, it enabled the

Archbishopric of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...

to exact

toll Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road toll (historic) The road toll was a historical fee charged to travellers and ...

s on river trade. In 1438 the archbishop sold the town and the castle to the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

and the townspeople effectively controlled it. The castle was already decaying in the 16th century and was destroyed in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

, but was rebuilt in 1653. The French destroyed it again in 1689 in the War of the Palatine Succession, and in the final phase of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

in 1713, the Mainz forces themselves blew up what was left to prevent its use by the enemy. Early 19th-century paintings show ruined walls, one connecting the castle to the town, but the castle itself levelled.Taylor
p. 293
The state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

acquired the ruin in 1815 and sold it to Hermann Faber, a lawyer. It was later owned by a Berliner called Rosenthal, who renovated the well. Both charged tourists to climb the gate tower as a viewing platform; Faber built a stairway up the outside of the walls and a viewing room at the top which he furnished with books of poetry, a comfortable sofa and a fully equipped writing desk, and laid out the grounds as a garden with romantic paths through the grapevines, trees and flowers. He also installed an

aeolian harp An Aeolian harp (also wind harp) is a musical instrument that is played by the wind. Named for Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of the wind, the traditional Aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box including a sounding board, with strings stretched ...

. The castle was one of the major sights of the Romantic Rhine.

J.M.W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

sketched a view of it from the River Nahe in 1844. By the end of the 19th century, some 75,000 entries had been made in the visitors' book. Bingen 2009-08-06 05

In 1853 the gatehouse, the bridge across the

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

and the fortifications were rebuilt for Ludwig Maria Cron. The bergfried was rebuilt as a crenellated tower 26 metres high, with four corner turrets. In 1875–79, a new

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

building was built on the site. The architect for both was the mayor, Eberhard Soherr. The base of the bergfried, the moat and parts of the southern curtain wall and its chemin de ronde are the only remnants of the medieval castle.

Current use

The rebuilt bergfried formerly housed the town's local history museum, which moved in 1998 to a former power station on the waterfront.Bingen
Welterbe Oberes Mittelrheintal, retrieved 30 March 2011 The larger Gothic building has been the seat of government and mayoral residence since 1897. There is also a gourmet restaurant.Andrea Schulte-Peevers, ''Germany'', 5th ed. Footscray, Victoria: Lonely Planet, 2007,
p. 494

Events

Rhein in Flammen Rhein in Flammen (English: "Rhine in Flames") is the name of five different firework displays along the river Rhine in Germany. The displays take place annually, at various locations along the river. On the five different dates, brightly illuminat ...

: On the first Saturday in July, ships travel from

Trechtingshausen Trechtingshausen (formerly also ''Trechtlingshausen'') is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The winegro ...

to Rüdesheim am Rhein to view fireworks at Burg Reichenstein,

Burg Rheinstein Rheinstein Castle (german: Burg Rheinstein) is a castle near the town of Trechtingshausen in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. History The castle was constructed in about 1316/1317. Rheinstein Castle was important for its strategic location. By ...

Assmannshausen Assmannshausen is, since its incorporation in 1977, a quarter of Rüdesheim am Rhein in the Rheingau, located on the Rhine in the state of Hesse, Germany. The village has a lithium spring, spa and a Kurhaus, and is famed for its red wine (Assmann ...

, the Mouse Tower, Ehrenfels Castle, Klopp Castle and the

Brömserburg The Brömserburg (also called the ''Niederburg'') is located near the banks of the Rhine in the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein in Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the German state of Hesse. Its original structure was probably one of the first stone castles ...

References

External links

Burg Klopp
at the European Castle Database (EBIDAT)
Restaurant Burg Klopp

Gallery