Trifels Steinbruch-Albersweiler.jpg
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Trifels Castle (german: Reichsburg Trifels) is a reconstructed medieval
castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
at an elevation of near the small town of Annweiler, in the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. It is located high above the
Queich The Queich is a tributary of the Rhine, which rises in the southern part of the Palatinate Forest, and flows through the Upper Rhine valley to its confluence with the Rhine in Germersheim. It is long and is one of the four major drainage system ...
valley within the Palatinate Forest on one peak of a red sandstone mountain split into three. Trifels Castle is on the peak of the ''Sonnenberg'', and on both of the other two rock elevations there are castle ruins:
Anebos Castle Anebos Castle is a ruin of a medieval castle in the Palatinate Forest south of Anweiler in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The name of the castle is probably derived from the German word "Amboss" (anvil). Geography The remains of this castle ...
and Scharfenberg Castle (demotically called Münz). Trifels Castle has been gradually restored since the 19th century and today replicas of the
Imperial Regalia The Imperial Regalia, also called Imperial Insignia (in German ''Reichskleinodien'', ''Reichsinsignien'' or ''Reichsschatz''), are regalia of the Holy Roman Emperor. The most important parts are the Crown, the Imperial orb, the Imperial sce ...
(''Reichskleinodien'') of the Holy Roman Empire are on display here. It is—together with
Hambach Castle Hambach Castle (german: Hambacher Schloss) is a castle near the urban district Hambach of Neustadt an der Weinstraße in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is considered a symbol of the German democracy movement because of the Hambacher Fest which ...
—one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.


History

The castle in Rhenish Franconia was first mentioned in a 1081 deed of donation, when it was held by a local noble Diemar, a relative of Archbishop
Siegfried I of Mainz Siegfried I (died 16 February 1084) was the Abbot of Fulda from 25 December 1058 until 6 January 1060, and from January 1060 until his death in February 1084, he was Archbishop of Mainz. Family Siegfried was a member of the Frankish Reginbodone ...
. From him Trifels passed to the Imperial Salian dynasty. Emperor
Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...
in 1113 made it a ''Reichsburg'' (Imperial Castle), rejecting the inheritance claims raised by Archbishop
Adalbert of Mainz Adalbert I von Saarbrücken (died June 23, 1137) was Archbishop-Elector of Mainz from 1111 until his death. He played a key role in opposing Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, during the Investiture Controversy, and secured the election of Lothair III ...
. The archbishop, allied with Henry's opponent
Lothair of Supplinburg Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 before ...
, had to spend several years of imprisonment at Trifels. Upon the death of Emperor Henry V in 1125, his nephew Duke Frederick II of Swabia made the castle a place of safekeeping for the Imperial Regalia of the Hohenstaufen emperors until in 1220 Frederick II of Hohenstaufen moved them to Waldburg Castle in
Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
. Trifels Castle is also famous as the site where Richard the Lionheart, King of England was imprisoned after he was captured by Duke Leopold V of Austria near Vienna in December 1192 on his return from the Third Crusade. Handed over to Emperor Henry VI of Hohenstaufen, a period of three weeks of captivity at Trifels from 31 March to 19 April 1193 is well documented. According to one legend, Richard was found by the trobador Blondel de Nesle, who reported the king's location to his friends; in fact, Richard's location was not a secret. Trifels Castle lost its importance with the Interregnum. After the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the castle was pledged several times. In 1330, it was mortgaged to the Electoral Palatinate. It finally fell to the Dukes of Palatinate-Simmern and Zweibrücken in 1410 and decayed after the Thirty Years' War. Deserted and derelict, the ruin served as a stone quarry, as a result of which the late-Romanesque residential building almost completely disappeared and the outer bailey for the most part. From about 1840, the Wittelsbach kings of Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria had the castle rebuilt. After Ludwig I of Bavaria had reconstruction plans prepared by his court architect August von Voit already in 1851, Georg von Schacky made a reconstruction drawing in 1881 and the Trifels Association (founded in 1860) had carried out structural measures in 1882, in particular the erection of the great well arch, the Munich architect Rudolf Esterer designed a monumental rebuilding project following the model of south Italian Hohenstaufen castles, initiated by the Trifels Association and born by the cultural-political ideology of the Nazi epoch. The Nazi era reconstruction in 1938–1942 and later reconstructions in 1946–1959 (residential building), 1960 (1st castellan's house), 1963–1966 (heightening of the keep), 1972–1978 (safeguarding and enclosing wall) and 1988–1989 (2nd castellan's house) utilized in part the preserved walls from the Middle Ages or those found by archaeological investigations in 1935–1937, but also in many cases rigorously ignored the original medieval findings and created essentially an architectural reinterpretation of the 20th century. The present-day castle is in large parts not true to the medieæval original. It is characterized by a large well tower outside the ring wall, linked to the castle by a bridge. The surrounding rocky landscape is a popular venue for mountaineers.Castles, Palaces and Antiquities of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, published by Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, translated by John M. Desy, 2000


Gallery

Trifels-28-vom Holzlager beim Klettererhaus-2022-gje.jpg, Remote view Trifels-38-2022-gje.jpg, Entrance tower Trifels-44-2022-gje.jpg, Stairway Trifels-50-2022-gje.jpg, Main tower Trifels-58-2022-gje.jpg, Vaulted passage Trifels-64-Rittersaal-2022-gje.jpg, Castle hall Trifels-70-Reichskrone-2022-gje.jpg, Copy of the Imperial Regalia Trifels-68-Reichsapfel-2022-gje.jpg, Copy of the Imperial Regalia Trifels-96-Annweiler-2022-gje.jpg, View towards Annweiler Trifels-78-Scharfenberg-Anebos-2022-gje.jpg, View towards Scharfenberg and Anebos


References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in the 11th century Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Landmarks in Germany Imperial castles Museums in Rhineland-Palatinate Historic house museums in Germany Rock castles Geography of the Palatinate (region) Rock formations of Rhineland-Palatinate Richard I of England Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor