Michelsburg Castle

The Michelsburg, also called St. Michaelsburg or Remigiusburg, is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the "Remigiusland" on the 368 m above sea level high summit of the Remigiusberg, 368 meters above normal zero high above the municipality of Haschbach am Remigiusberg in the district of Kusel in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The origin of the summit castle on the Remigiusberg is presumed to be before 1100. The first documented mention is a charter from Mainz Archbishop Adalbert I dated October 8, 1127. Monks bought the castle from robber knights, tore it down, and erected a Benedictine priory in its place.

In 1260, Count Heinrich von Zweibrücken rebuilt the castle as a wooden fortress, which was later converted to stone, expanded, and had a chapel (dedicated to St. Michael) built inside. It served as the residence for various members of the 2nd Veldenz line of counts until 1444, and after their extinction, it was a fief of the Knights Blick von Lichtenberg until 1524. From 1524, Count Ruprecht von Veldenz owned the castle, and from November 18, 1543, through the Treaty of Marburg, it became the ancestral castle of the Palatinate-Veldenz line of counts. The castle served as a secondary residence, and a princely crypt was established in the neighboring collegiate church of St. Remigius.

During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was severely damaged, significantly destroyed in the Palatinate War of Succession, and finally destroyed by the French Revolution, although it was still habitable.

In 1886, the castle became the property of the Catholic Church Foundation Remigiusberg and was restored from 1972 to 1974.