Youth hostel
CastleBlankenheim
Blankenheim Castle
Blankenheim Castle is a castle complex above the municipality of Blankenheim in the Eifel. It was built as a hilltop castle around the year 1115 by Gerhard I and was the ancestral seat of the Blankenheim family. The Lords of Blankenheim were elevated to the rank of counts in 1380. The counts were related to the Counts of Manderscheid and called themselves Manderscheid-Blankenheim from 1469 onwards. With the extinction of the Manderscheid-Gerolstein and Manderscheid-Kail lines (1742), the County of Manderscheid became the largest independent dominion in the Eifel.
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The complex was rebuilt many times, and over time, a medieval defensive structure became a baroque castle with a baroque garden and an orangery. The end came in September 1794, when French troops marched into Blankenheim. Countess Augusta of Manderscheid-Blankenheim fled with her family to Bohemia.
The castle remained uninhabited for a long time, and in 1894, Prussia began preservation measures. In 1926, the German Gymnastics Federation took it over, and in 1936, the complex became the property of the German Youth Hostel Association. This converted the castle into a youth hostel.
Remarkable about the castle is the Tiergarten Tunnel, rediscovered only in 1996. It is a remarkable water supply system. Although the Ahr river is nearby, the castle relied on rainwater. Therefore, Count Dietrich III of Manderscheid-Blankenheim had a supply tunnel dug in 1469. The water from the "In der Rhenn" spring was thus brought to the castle from about one kilometer away.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: Jörg Heldt
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
Location: 50.4378, 6.6517