The ruins of Sayn Castle (german: Burg Sayn), the 12th century family castle of the counts of Sayn and Sayn-Wittgenstein, are in

Sayn Sayn was a small German county of the Holy Roman Empire which, during the Middle Ages, existed within what is today Rheinland-Pfalz. There have been two Counties of Sayn. The first emerged in 1139 and became closely associated with the County ...

, part of the borough of

Bendorf Bendorf () is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. north of Koblenz. Structure of the town The town consists of the following districts: *Bendorf *Sayn *Mülhofen *St ...

on the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

, between

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its nam ...

and

Neuwied Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...

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 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 ...

of the spur castle lie on the Kehrberg, a hill ridge about 110 metres long and 40 metres wide, in the foothills of the Westerwald, between the valleys of the

Brexbach The Brexbach (historically: ''Brachysa'') is a river, just under long, and an orographically left-hand tributary of the Saynbach in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Course The ''Brexbach'' is formed by the uniting of the ''Hinterste ...

and Saynbach. Below the ruins, the village of Sayn stretches away to the south. At the foot of the castle hill is

Schloss Sayn ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...

, a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

building dating to 1757. Between the '' schloss'' and Sayn Castle there are two former

castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant ...

residences: the 15th century ''Mittlere Burghaus'', which is joined to the castle by a wall, and the 14th century ''Von Steinschen Sitz'' (''Stein Castle'') of the lords of Stein from

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

. Further east along the ridge there is the predecessor of Sayn Castle, the ''Alte Burg'' (“Old Castle”) from the 10th or 11th century, of which only a few remnants have survived. Sayn Castle may be reached on the B 413 federal highway and '' Landesstraße'' L 306 which branches off in Sayn. At the castle is a large car park and another one just in front of the castle wall.

Description

Whilst the southern, western and northern flanks of Sayn drop steeply into the valley, the flat hill ridge on the eastern side, from where the castle is accessed, is protected by a deep and wide artificial

neck ditch A neck ditch (german: Halsgraben), sometimes called a throat ditch,
at www.roadstoruins.com. Accessed on 3 Jan 2012. is a dry

. In order to provide additional protection a mighty

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 should ...

with a wall walk was built above the moat. In the northeastern area of the site stands a well preserved, roughly 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 ...

'', which dominates the appearance of Sayn Castle. The construction period of the ''bergfried'', whose walls are 2.4 metres thick in the middle, dates to the late 12th century. A wall running south from the ''bergfried'', also guarded by an allure, divides the

inner bailey The inner bailey or inner ward of a castle is the strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of a medieval castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It is protected by the outer w ...

into two courtyards. Excavations in recent times have revealed that 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 ...

'' originally stood on the south side of the smaller eastern courtyard, but was later moved to the western spur of the site. Today nothing is left apart from a 25-metre-deep castle well and an octagonal staircase tower. These excavations also uncovered the foundation walls of a

castle chapel Castle chapels (german: Burgkapellen) in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the ...

at the southwestern corner in the form of a simultaneum with three

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

s and its well preserved, ornately decorated floor dating to about 1200. In front of the southern

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 ...

is a 90-metre-long and 20-metre-wide ''

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 ...

'', guarded to the east by a small defensive tower and to the west by a

barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe In the Middle A ...

. Here there is also a smaller gateway ''zwinger'' and, further down the hillside, the ''Mittlere Burghaus'' ("Middle Castle House"), which is joined to the inner ward by a wall. The excavations, carried out by the State Conservation Department, also exposed the original access track to the inner ward along the southern flank through the gate ''zwinger'', which may now be used again.

References

Literature

* Dehio: ''Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland''. Munich, 1984, pp. 92–93 * Udo Liessem: ''Zur Baugeschichte von Sayn Castle.'' In: Alexander Fürst zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn (ed.): ''Sayn - Ort and Fürstenhaus.'' o.O., o.J. (Bendorf-Sayn, 1979) * Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich: ''„... wie ein Monarch mitten in seinem Hofstaate thront“. Burgen am unteren Mittelrhein''. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg, 2010, , pp. 142–147.

External links

Sayn Castle

Photographs of Sayn Castle

Artist's impression of the castle in medieval times
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in the 12th century Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate