Lahneck Castle
Encyclopedia
Lahneck Castle is a medieval fortress located in the city of Lahnstein
Lahnstein
Lahnstein is a verband-free town of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Lahn River with the Rhine, approximately south of Koblenz...

 in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, south of Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...

. The 13th-century castle stands on a steep rock salient above the confluence of the Lahn
Lahn
The Lahn River is a -long, right tributary of the Rhine River in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse , and Rhineland-Palatinate ....

 River with the Rhine, opposite Castle Stolzenfels, in the district of Oberlahnstein. Its symmetrical plan, an oblong rectangle, is typical of the later castles of the time of the Hohenstaufen
Hohenstaufen
The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings in the High Middle Ages, lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufens also became Kings of Sicily...

. The pentagonal shape of the keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

 is rare for castle towers.

The castle became well-known in England by the death of Idilia Dubb
Idilia Dubb
Idilia Dubb was a seventeen-year-old young woman from Scotland whose tragic demise in the abandoned Lahneck Castle while vacationing in Germany became celebrated through a diary she allegedly kept as she slowly starved to death....

 in June 1851. While on holiday with her family, the 17 year old girl mounted the abandoned castle's high tower, when suddenly the wooden stairs collapsed behind her. Nobody heard her crying and calling from the tower, because it was surrounded with an insurmountable wall 3 meters high. The last sentences in her diary: All I know is that there is no hope for me. My death is certain. ... Father in heaven, have mercy on my soul (with two hearts drawn below). She was only found after years in 1860, her diary hidden in the walls some weeks later.

History

Lahneck Castle was built in 1226 by the Archbishop of Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...

 Siegfried III of Eppstein
Siegfried III, Archbishop of Mainz
Siegfried III von Eppstein was archbishop of Mainz from 1230 to 1249. He in 1244 granted freedom to the citizens of Mainz, who subsequently could run their affairs more independently though their own council.; in law it remained an episcopal city....

 to protect his territory at the mouth of the Lahn, where the town of Oberlahnstein and a silver mine had come into the possession of the Archbishopric in 1220.

The castle chapel, dedicated to Saint Ulrich of Augsburg
Ulrich of Augsburg
Saint Ulrich , sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Bishop of Augsburg and a leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. He was the first saint to be canonized.-Family:...

, was built in 1245, in the same year the first Burggraf took up residence in the castle.

In 1298, King Adolf of Nassau was a guest at the castle, shortly before his death in the Battle of Göllheim
Battle of Göllheim
The Battle of Göllheim was fought on 2 July 1298 between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.After the death of Rudolph I at Germesheim on 15 July 1291, his son, Albert I seemed to be the inevitable successor to the throne of Holy Empire...

 against King Albert I of Habsburg
Albert I of Germany
Albert I of Habsburg was King of the Romans and Duke of Austria, the eldest son of German King Rudolph I of Habsburg and his first wife Gertrude of Hohenburg.-Life:...

. In order to avenge him, the Burggraf of Lahneck, Friedrich Schilling of Lahnstein, participated in a conspiracy against Albert. The castle was stormed in 1309 and Friedrich Schilling was executed.

According to legend, when the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

 were ordered by Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...

 to disband in 1312, the last 12 Templars took refuge in the castle, where they perished in a heroic fight to the death with forces of Mainz Archbishop Peter of Aspelt
Peter of Aspelt
Peter Aspelt was Archbishop of Mainz from 1306 to 1320, and an influential political figure of the period. He brought the archbishopric to its peak of power....

.

In 1332, Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...

 granted a 40-day indulgence
Indulgence
In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...

 to those attending services in the castle chapel.

On June 4, 1400, King Wenceslaus of Germany
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans
Wenceslaus ) was, by election, German King from 1376 and, by inheritance, King of Bohemia from 1378. He was the third Bohemian and second German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty...

 was deposed by the four Rhenish Prince-electors in Oberlahnstein. Together with the Prince Elector of Mainz, Burggraf Friedrich of Nuremberg hosted many of many delegates sent by the cities at the castle. In Rhens, the following day, Rupert
Rupert of Germany
Rupert of Germany from the House of Wittelsbach was Elector Palatine from 1398 and German King from 1400 until his death...

, Count Palatine of the Rhine, was elected the new "King of the Romans
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...

".

In 1475, Mainz Archbishop Theodoric of Isenburg-Büdingen
Diether von Isenburg
thumb|Diethers coat of arms stained glass in Mainz Cathedral...thumb|... and as relief at the city walls of [[Höchst |Höchst]]Theodoric of Isenburg-Büdingen thumb|Diethers coat of arms stained glass in Mainz Cathedral...thumb|... and as relief at the city walls of [[Höchst (Frankfurt am...

 had the castle strengthened with two outer walls following the Mainz Bishops Feud with his rival archbishop, Adolph II of Nassau
Adolph II of Nassau
Adolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein was Archbishop of Mainz from 1461 until 1475.Adolph was a son of Count Adolph II of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein....

.

In 1633, during the Thirty Years War, the castle was heavily damaged by Swedish and Imperial troops.

On July 18, 1774, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

 wrote the poem Geistesgruß. It was inspired by the sight of Lahneck Castle during his travels along the Lahn River.

In the German Mediatisation
German Mediatisation
The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

 of 1803, in which the Archbishopric of Mainz lost its secular territories, Lahneck Castle was granted to the Duchy of Nassau. In 1850 it was sold and has remained in private ownership since. Edward Moriarty, a Director of the Rhenish Railway Company, became one of its first owners. During the ownership of Earl Kleist-Tychow a more than life-sized portrait of Queen Victoria was presented which can still be seen at the castle. Imperial Admiral Robert Mischke, later commander of armoured cruiser "von der Tann", purchased the castle in 1907 and it has been owned by his family ever since.

Literary references

The castle features in chapter 14 of Unless Victory Comes, Gene Garrison's memoir of the United States 3rd Army's crossing of the Rhine River on the morning of March 25, 1945.

External links

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