Winzingen Castle

Winzingen Castle is the ruin of a hilltop castle on a hill in the Haardt above the Haardt district of Neustadt an der Weinstraße in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The castle dates from the 10th century. The oldest surviving remains, in particular the ruin of the Nikolaus Chapel and parts of the ring wall, are dated to the 11th century. The name goes back to the village of Winzingen, which already existed in 774 and was incorporated into the city of Neustadt in 1892.

The first documented mention of the castle was in 1146 with Knight Berthold von Winzingen. After his death, the castle was apparently transferred in 1155 to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's brother, Konrad von Hohenstaufen. In 1248, Count Palatine Otto II appointed Count Emich IV of Leiningen as a castellan. In 1324, Louis the Bavarian gave the castle to his chancellor Hermann von Lichtenberg; it was quite dilapidated at this time. After the Palatine partition, Count Palatine Rudolf II appointed Count Emich V of Leiningen as a castellan in 1350. Elector Frederick II was born at the castle in 1482.

Destruction and looting occurred in 1525 during the Peasants' War by a Gleisweiler peasant mob. In 1576, Count Palatine Johann Casimir inherited the castle and brought the complex into good condition; a painting from 1610 confirms this. After the castle had been occupied by the French in the Palatine War of Succession, it was shelled by Hessian troops in 1696 and largely destroyed. Although the complex was partially restored as a summer residence after 1700, it fell into disrepair again from 1728.

Since 1804 in private ownership, the area was transformed by the Neustadt merchant Schuster with considerable effort into a park-like garden and the remains of the palas were converted into a wine press hall. In 1843, Winzingen Castle was shortlisted as one of the castles that were to be rebuilt for Crown Prince Maximilian. However, the nearby Kästenburg, today's Hambach Castle, was chosen instead. In 1875, Kommerzienrat August Ritter von Clemm, one of the co-founders of BASF, acquired the property and built an imposing villa on the northeast side, the Haardt Castle, also known as Haardter Schlössel.