Schmidtburg Castle, Schneppenbach, Germany

Schneppenbach was administratively tightly bound with the Schmidtburg castle, which nowadays stands within the village's municipal limits. The castle, whose beginnings go back at least as far as 929, and possibly as far as 926, is one of the oldest in the Nahe-Hunsrück region and is believed to have been the family seat of the Counts in the Nahegau, the Emichones. Their coheirs and rightful successors, the Waldgraves, owned the castle in the 12th and 13th centuries. Internal Waldgravial family disputes, however, resulted in ownership being transferred about 1330 to Archbishop and Elector of Trier Baldwin of Luxembourg. Under Baldwin, the castle was expanded, and in the time that followed, it became the seat of the Electoral-Trier Amt of Schmidtburg.

The castle was destroyed during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–1697) by French troops in 1688. Today impressive large ruins remain.

User Reviews

Casey Rife (5 months ago)
Very old castle, mostly ruins but also great hiking!

Rick H (6 months ago)
Just incredible how you can camp inside castle ruins like this! There’s multiple composting toilets and also water from a tap (although it needs to be filtered first). The Teufelshütte nearby is also worth checking out (log cabin for hikers and watchtower with great view).

ruteto (2 years ago)
Beautyfull trail

Krishnent S Kumar (2 years ago)
Great place to visit in the spring

Vos in t Veld (3 years ago)
Very big ruine, great to walk through.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Klearchos Kapoutsis

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The Beckov castle stands on a steep 50 m tall rock in the village Beckov. The dominance of the rock and impression of invincibility it gaves, challenged our ancestors to make use of these assets. The result is a remarkable harmony between the natural setting and architecture.

The castle first mentioned in 1200 was originally owned by the King and later, at the end of the 13th century it fell in hands of Matúš Èák. Its owners alternated - at the end of the 14th century the family of Stibor of Stiborice bought it.

The next owners, the Bánffys who adapted the Gothic castle to the Renaissance residence, improved its fortifications preventing the Turks from conquering it at the end of the 16th century. When Bánffys died out, the castle was owned by several noble families. It fell in decay after fire in 1729.

The history of the castle is the subject of different legends.

Schmidtburg Castle

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