Metternich Castle

The ruin of Metternich Castle is the ruin of a spur castle at 150 m above sea level on a approximately 60-meter-high mountain spur, steeply sloping on three sides, above the municipality of Beilstein in Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate. The city of Cochem is 7 kilometers northwest, Zell 10 kilometers south, and the nearest major city, Koblenz, 36 kilometers northeast. All figures refer to the distance measured as the crow flies; the respective route distances are significantly longer when measured by the river kilometers of the Moselle.

In 1268, a "castle, which is called Beilstein", was first mentioned in a document. It was owned by Johann von Braunshorn, a feudal lord of the Archbishopric of Cologne. Contrary to the older view of a presumed foundation long before the first mention, recent castle research by Alexander Thon and Stefan Ulrich showed that the castle was probably built only around the middle of the 13th century, thus a few decades earlier. After the Braunshorn family died out in 1361 with the death of Gerlach without male successors, the complex came into the possession of his grandsons Kuno and Gerlach von Winneburg in 1363.

The castle largely survived the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War, with occupation by Swedish and Spanish troops, largely unscathed. After the extinction of the Winneburg family, the castle came into the possession of the Lords of Metternich in 1637, from whom the castle still takes its name today. In 1689, the castle was destroyed by French troops in the War of the Palatine Succession and was not rebuilt. The last owner from the Metternich line until the occupation of the Rhineland by the French in 1794 was Prince von Metternich. After several changes of ownership, the castle ruin is now in the hands of the Sprenger-Herzer family.