Dagstuhl Castle

The origins of Dagstuhl Castle date back to the 13th century, when it was built around 1270 by Knight Boemund von Saarbrücken. Its first documented mention is from 1290. The complex served as a bulwark for Kurtrier against the Lords of Schwarzenberg and secured the confluence of the Wadrill and Löster rivers into the Prims. After the extinction of the knightly lineage in the 14th century, the castle became a Ganerbenburg in 1375, divided among the families of the four heiresses: von Fleckenstein, Brücken, Kriechingen, and Rollingen. In 1404, it briefly fell to Nikolaus Vogt von Hunolstein before undergoing extensive reconstruction between 1466 and 1472. In the early 17th century, the Elector Philipp Christoph von Sötern of Trier acquired the castle and had it converted into the seat of his family fideicommiss, during which the palas, among other structures, was rebuilt. Through marriage, the castle passed to the Counts of Oettingen-Baldern in 1696.