The castle of Neuscharfeneck is a ruin and a cultural monument above Ramberg and Dernbach on the territory of an exclave of Flemlingen

Flemlingen

Flemlingen is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....

 in the district of Südliche Weinstraße in the west German state of 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 ....

.

Location

The ruins are situated in the eastern part of the Palatine Forest. They lie at an elevation of 500 metres on the western foothills of the Kalkofen Berg in the middle of a forest and are only accessible over forest tracks.

Layout

The first castle, dating to the 13th century, was considerably smaller than the present ruins. Of the Hochstaufen castle only a few remnants have survived.

The entire site measures ca. 150 × 60 metres. Its shield wall

Shield wall (fortification)

A shield wall refers to the highest and strongest wall of a castle where it is clearly distinguished from the other curtain walls of a castle. The shield wall serves to protect the side from which the main attack is expected...

, built from ca. 1212 to 1232 and extended in the years 1470 and 1530, is the mightiest in the Palatinate, with a length of 58 metres and thickness of 12 metres. Within the shield wall there are relatively few usable passages, chambers and casemate

Casemate

A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...

s. It therefore acted - apart from the hoarding (Plattform) that has not survived - primarily as passive protection for the castle behind it. The original entrance was over a drawbridge

Drawbridge

A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...

 through the shield wall into the castle.

In the castle gardens, rare herbs such as White Henbane

Hyoscyamus

Hyoscyamus is a small genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The eleven species it contains are known generally as the henbanes. All of them are toxic.-Selected species:* Hyoscyamus albus L. – White Henbane...

, Ingräu and Abbey Hysop

Hyssop

Hyssop is a genus of about 10-12 species of herbaceous or semi-woody plants in the family Lamiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to central Asia. They are aromatic, with erect branched stems up to 60 cm long covered with fine hairs at the tips. The leaves are narrow oblong, 2–5 cm...

 were planted.

There is still a partially surviving gateway with a flanking tower.
Four water basins, chiselled out of the rock in the 13th century, were used as cisterns, that were supplied with rainwater and, from the 16th century, with water from the Roßberg Spring, two kilometres away, over pipes made of clay or hollow tree trunks.

The 30 metre long upper castle (Oberburg) on the central rock was built from 1212 to 1232 as the first residential building but has unfortunately not survived, apart from its well and an inaccessible chamber and steps in the rock.

Literature

• Rolf Übel: Burg Neuscharfeneck bei Dernbach, Kreis Südliche Weinstraße. Verlag für Burgenkunde und Pfalzforschung, Landau 1998 ISBN 3-929893-04-5
• Alexander Thon (ed.): "... wie eine gebannte, unnahbare Zauberburg“. Burgen in der Südpfalz. 2nd, improved ed., Regensburg 2005, pp. 122-127. ISBN 3-7954-1570-5
• Walter Herrmann: Auf Rotem Fels, pp. 150-155, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2004, ISBN 3-7650-8286-4
• Jochen Goetze: Burgen in der Pfalz, pp. 46-50, Heidelberg 1991, ISBN 3-921524-94-6

External links

• Castle entry in the scientific castle data bank of the European Institute of Castles (EBIDAT)
• Burgenwelt
• Neuscharfeneck Castle
• Photographs of Neuscharfeneck Castle at Burgenparadies.de
• Extract from the Palatine Castle Lexicon: Neuscharfeneck Castle