Landsberg Castle (german: Burg Landsberg, also ''Moschellandsburg'' or ''Landsburg'') 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 ...

hillside castle A hillside castle is a castle built on the side of a hill above much of the surrounding terrain but below the summit itself. It is thus a type of hill castle and emerged in Europe in the second half of the 11th century. As a result of the particul ...

on the hill of Moschellandsberg near the town of

Obermoschel Obermoschel is a town and municipality in the district Donnersbergkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With around 1,000 residents, it is the smallest town in the Palatinate (''Pfalz''). It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective munic ...

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 may be hired out for private events.

History

The castle is first recorded in 1130 when Count Emicho of Schmidburg bequeathed it to Gerlach I of Veldenz. When

Frederick III, Count of Veldenz Frederick III, Count of Veldenz (died 1444) was the last from the Hohengeroldseck family to rule the county - that male line died out with him, and the county passed to his son-in-law Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken, widower of Fre ...

died in 1444, the male line of the counts of Veldenz died out with him. The castle and the

County of Veldenz The County of Veldenz was a principality in the contemporary Land Rhineland-Palatinate. The county was located partially between Kaiserslautern, Sponheim and Zweibrücken, partially on the Mosel in the Archbishopric of Trier. A municipality of ...

(as well as a portion of the

County of Sponheim The County of Sponheim (german: Grafschaft Sponheim, former spelling: Spanheim, Spanheym) was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire that lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century. The name comes from the municipality ...

) went to his son-in-law,

Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken Stephen of Simmern-Zweibrücken (german: link=no, Stefan Pfalzgraf von Simmern-Zweibrücken) (23 June 1385 – 14 February 1459, Simmern) was Count Palatine of Simmern and Zweibrücken from 1410 until his death in 1459.Ludwig Molitor: Vollständi ...

. Stephen divided these holdings that same year, assigning the castle and Veldenz to his younger son,

Louis I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken Louis I of Zweibrücken (; 1424 – 19 July 1489) was Count Palatine and Duke of Zweibrücken and Count of Veldenz from 1444 until his death in 1489. Life He was the younger son of Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken and his wife An ...

. Louis expanded the castle into a strong fortress. The castle suffered serious damage during 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 ...

; it was transferred to the Spanish in 1620 and was taken over by Croats in 1622. In 1631, the Swedes entered the castle and used it as a barracks. In 1689 the castle was destroyed during the

War of the Palatine Succession The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarc ...

by the troops of King

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

. Its ruins were returned to their original owner in 1693. During the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

the castle was seized as 'national property'. The most comprehensive maintenance and renovation work since the destruction of the castle took place in 1977 and 1978. A few years later, from 1981 to 1983, a refuge hut was built over the cellar vaulting. The castle belongs today to the town of Obermoschel which, since 2005, has undertaken annual maintenance and improvement work. In 2007, parts of the castle site were planted with old species of rose and the meadow was planted with fruit trees.

Site

A ''

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 ...

'' dominates the castle and can be seen from a long way off. In the 16th century, the castle was converted into a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

'' schloß''. A might

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 ...

rusticated ashlar Two different styles of rustication in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and rough-faced below.">Florence.html" ;"title="Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence">Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and r ...

from the 12th/13th centuries has survived, as have the remains of the ''

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson, ...

'',

gate tower A gate tower (german: Torturm) is a tower built over or next to a major gateway. Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on ...

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For ...

, stables and

castle well A castle well was a water well built to supply drinking water to a castle. It was often the most costly and time-consuming element in the building of a castle, and its construction time could span decades. The well – as well as any available cis ...

Literature

* Manfred Czerwinski: ''Burgen. Stolze Zeugen einer großen Zeit''. Kaiserslautern, 2002, . * Alexander Thon (ed.): ''Wie Schwalbennester an den Felsen geklebt. Burgen in der Nordpfalz''. Regensburg, 2005, , pp. 84-89.

External links

{{Wikisource, Topographia Palatinatus Rheni: Landsperg, Landsperg in der Topographia Palatinatus Rheni (Matthäus Merian) Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Donnersbergkreis