The Niederburg ("Lower Castle") at Kobern, also called the ''Niedernburg'', ''Unterburg'' or ''Neue Burg'', is a

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 a ...

above the municipality of

Kobern-Gondorf Kobern-Gondorf is a municipality in the Mayen-Koblenz, district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Rhein-Mosel. Above the village are the two castles of Niederburg, Kobern, Nieder ...

in the county of

Mayen-Koblenz Mayen-Koblenz is a district (''Kreis'') in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Ahrweiler, Neuwied, Westerwaldkreis, district-free Koblenz, Rhein-Lahn, Rhein-Hunsrück, Cochem-Zell, and V ...

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 ...

Location

The ruins of the Niederburg stand at a height of about 150 metres above the village of Kobern on a hill ridge that points towards the Moselle. On the same ridge and about 50 metres higher, is the Oberburg ("Upper Castle") and St. Matthias' Chapel.

Description

The castle has an amygdaloidal ground plan. It has a three-storey, 20-metre-high ''

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 Germ ...

'', measuring 7.5 x 8 metres, with an

elevated entrance An elevated entrance is a type of entrance, common in the design of medieval castles, that is not accessible from ground level, but lies at the level of an upper storey. The elevated entrance is the lowest and frequently the only way of ent ...

at a height of 10 metres. There are also the remains of a two-storey, Late Gothic ''

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 ...

''. A wall tower and a cistern are also well preserved and there are significant portions of the outer walls. The castle was guarded to the west by a curtain wall with a ''

zwinger "" () is a German word for outer ward or outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence ...

'' and to the north by a throat ditch. The upper third of the ''bergfried'' and the

battlement A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

s were rebuilt in the 19th century. Between 1976 and 1978, the state castle administration reconstructed and enhanced the ''palas'' and the cistern between the two towers.

History

The castle was built in the mid-12th century. It is first recorded in 1195, when the then '' Burgherr'' made it a

fiefdom A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

of the Electorate of Trier. The female line of the lords of Isenburg-Kobern died out in the 13th century. The Kobern Castles and associated lordship passed via the heiress, Cecilia, to Frederick II of Neuerburg (a side line of the

counts of Vianden The Counts of Vianden, ancestors of the House of Orange-Nassau, were associated with the castle of Vianden (Vianden Castle) in Luxembourg. In the 12th to 15th centuries the counts of Vianden were the mightiest lords of the area between the rive ...

). In 1309 the male line of this family also died out. Thereafter the castle and lordship was sold to the

Archbishop of Trier The Diocese of Trier, in English historically also known as ''Treves'' (IPA "tɾivz") from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany. The castle is open to the public all year round and may be visited free of charge. Visitors may climb up to the castle on a footpath from the Mühlbach valley.

Monument protection

The Niederburg is a protected

cultural monument A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...

. General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (publ.):
Nachrichtliches Verzeichnis der Kulturdenkmäler Kreis Mayen-Koblenz
' (pdf; 1.7 MB), Koblenz, 2013.

References

Literature

* Ortsgemeinde Kobern-Gondorf (publ.): ''Kobern-Gondorf.'' 1980. * Landesamt für Denkmalpflege - Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland-Pfalz (publ.), Führer der staatlichen Schlösserverwaltung des Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege Rheinland-Pfalz, Führungsheft 7, Mainz, 1999 *

External links

* {{Ebidat, 476, Burg Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Kobern, Niederburg Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Kobern, Niederburg +Niederburg Kobern 12th-century architecture