Sprengelburg Castle

The Sprengelburg (or Springeburg) is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located between the municipalities of Eßweiler and Oberweiler im Tal on the L 372. Since 1983, the ruin has been designated as a historical monument.

The Sprengelburg is located on an outcrop of the Königsberg between Eßweiler and Oberweiler im Tal directly on today's state road 372. The municipal boundary of the two communities runs through the castle grounds.

In the Middle Ages

Judging by the existing building remains, the Sprengelburg was probably built in the 13th century. The castle was built at the narrowest point of the Talbach valley and controlled the road that then ran below the castle in the valley floor.

The known lords of the castle were the Knights Mühlenstein, vassals of the Rheingrafen in Grumbach. Whether they were also the builders is uncertain. The Mühlenstein family is attested from 1317 to 1451. The Knights Mühlenstein acted as robber knights and caused severe damage to merchants using the road. Consequently, the castle was also destroyed by Strasbourg merchants as a retaliatory measure for the raids. The exact date of the destruction is not known. However, the Lichtenberg district clerk and surveyor Johannes Hoffmann wrote in his "Description of the Essweiler Valley 1595" that after the destruction, the castle grounds were cleared and sown several times by the local farmers, but the harvests always failed due to wet and cold summers. When, after a third clearing, "a great darkness came in the middle of the day in summer" and this harvest also failed, they finally gave up and the castle area became overgrown in the following years. This darkness after the third clearing could have been the solar eclipse of 1441.

Modern Era

After the futile attempts at use, the castle grounds became completely overgrown. Until the 1970s, no building remains could be found; the castle lay dormant under a hill covered with trees. Only the name "am alten Schloss" (at the old castle) and the remains of the neck ditch, which was partly built over by the L372, still reminded of what was hidden beneath.

From 1976, excavations were carried out on the site by students from the University of Maryland under the direction of Professor Higel. The remains of the outer walls, a rectangle of 20 by 15 m, and a round tower 8 m in diameter were uncovered. In the summer of 1978, the skeleton of a woman was also discovered inside the castle. After the excavations were completed, reconstruction measures were carried out, initiated by the Office for Monument Preservation in Speyer. The outer walls and the tower were rebuilt, and a round-arched gate was inserted into the outer wall on the back of the complex as an entrance. Some of the stones found during the excavation were used for this. The modern access to the tower, an iron spiral staircase, was also added at that time.