Schöneck Castle stands on a rock outcrop in the Ehrbach Gorge in the borough of Boppard in the Hunsrück mountains of Germany.
Schöneck was built around 1200 by imperial ministerialis, Conrad of Boppard, as an imperial castle. His descendants called themselves the lords of Schöneck and lived at the castle until they died out in 1508. The family had several lines, who lived jointly at the castle (making it a so-called Ganerbenburg). It was from Schöneck that the district known as the Gallscheider Gericht was administered.
In the Eltz Feud of 1331–1336, the castle was part of the protection and defence league of rebel knights against the Archbishop of Trier and Elector Baldwin of Luxembourg. The castle became an enfeoffment of the Electorate of Trier in 1354.
In 1488 Schöneck was occupied by troops of the Count Palatine during the so-called Beilstein War (Beilsteiner Krieg) and, later, returned to the Electorate for a short time.
From 1508 onwards, the castle changed hands several times, but remained a Trier fief-castle. Between 1560 and 1646 Schöneck became the fief of a side line of the lords of Eltz. Between 1646 and about 1677 Schöneck belonged to the so-called Sötern fee tail, a foundation for the management of the estates of the von Sötern family. The mastermind of this arrangement was Archbishop Phillip Christopher of Sötern. After being enlarged with Baroque wings in the mid-17th century, Schöneck became known as Schloss Schöneck.
In 1912 the artist, Wilhelm Steinhausen, bought the site. Since 1922 it has been owned by a family foundation.
Schloss Schöneck now consists mainly of buildings from the 19th and 20th century. Its medieval elements include its division into an upper and lower baileys. Medieval structures include the cellars and supporting walls, towers and part of the enceinte. On the uphill side are the remains of a neck ditch.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.