Alt-Wolfstein Castle

Alt-Wolfstein Castle, also known as the Old Castle, is the ruin of a hillside castle on the eastern slope of the Königsberg at the narrowest point of the Lauter Valley near Wolfstein in the Kusel district of Rhineland-Palatinate.

It was probably built under Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa around 1160/70 to secure and administer the imperial estate around Kaiserslautern.

The castle is first mentioned in 1275 as Woluistein. At this time, the castle was occupied by imperial ministerials.

In the 14th century, the castle served as collateral and, as an imperial pledge, came into the possession of the Counts of Sponheim and the Counts of Veldenz. Baldwin of Luxembourg tried several times unsuccessfully to take possession of the castle through an imperial pledge.

Repeated attacks by the castle garrison, which consisted of Sponheim ministerial families, led to armed conflicts. In 1362, the Bishop of Speyer occupied the castle; in 1400, the Archbishops of Mainz and Trier, the Duke of Lorraine, and Count Palatine Ruprecht III besieged the castle. As a result, the Electoral Palatinate received a quarter of the castle.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Electoral Palatinate and the Duchy of Zweibrücken disputed ownership of the castle. The dispute ended in 1504 with its destruction by Elector Philip of the Palatinate. After that, Alt-Wolfstein Castle was left to decay.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the castle ruin belonged to Bavaria and has been under the administration of castles in Rhineland-Palatinate since 1963. This administration also carried out initial masonry stabilization in the years 1979 to 1981 and 1985 to 1986. The remains of the castle ruin feature a 20 m high keep.