Falkenburg Castle is a castle ruin overlooking Wilgartswiesen

Wilgartswiesen

Wilgartswiesen is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....

 in the Palatinate Forest 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...

. Like almost all castles in this region it was built on sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

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History

The castle was first mentioned in 1246, but as with many castles in the area it probably existed much earlier. A Werner von Falkenburg is mentioned among legal documents dating from 1290. From 1300 to 1313 the castle was pledged to Friedrich IV von Leiningen. Then in 1317 it was pledged to the Counts of the Palatinate Rudolf II and Ruprecht I by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Louis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the King of Germany from 1314, the King of Italy from 1327 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1328....

. In 1375 Emich V von Leiningen became the proprietor of the castle. The Falkenburg withstood the German Peasants' War

German Peasants' War

The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

, but was occupied from 1632 until it was given back to its proprietor in 1648. The castle was demolished by French troops in 1680.

The entire region of Frankenweide was administered from Falkenburg up to its destruction when it was moved to Wilgartswiesen

Wilgartswiesen

Wilgartswiesen is a municipality in Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....

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Location

The elongated Castle building is in two parts a 50 by 11 meter higher part which was connected by a staircase and

The main tower occupied a space of 6.8 meters by 7.2 meters. Its walls have a thickness of 1.8 meters of which remains a 2.5 meter stub. The ruins comprise a cistern, gatehouse

Gatehouse

A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...

, living quarters and further remnants of walls on the castle cliffs.