Wildburg Castle

The Wildburg is a reconstructed castle complex in the municipality of Treis-Karden in the district of Cochem-Zell (Rhineland-Palatinate). It is located approximately 30 kilometers as the crow flies southwest of Koblenz.

The hilltop castle stands on a wooded and steeply rising mountain spur, which is encircled by the Flaumbach and Dünnbach streams, both originating from the Hunsrück. On the same mountain spur, separated only by a hollow, lies Treis Castle, a few hundred meters to the north and slightly lower. The Wildburg is situated at an altitude of approximately 85 meters above the confluence of the two streams. Located at an altitude of 165 meters above sea level, it is good a kilometer south of Treis in a side valley of the Moselle.

The castle may have been built as early as the first half of the 12th century by Count Palatine Otto von Rheineck. With some certainty, however, the castle built by Otto von Rheineck was Treis Castle. The Wildburg was built in the 13th or 14th century by the Lords of Wildenberg. It was the seat of a collateral line related to the Lords of Braunshorn. After the extinction of this line around 1400, Kurtrier seized the castle as an escheat. In the following centuries, the castle changed hands several times (Lords of Miehlen, Lords of dem Burgtor, Lords of Eltz), but remained under Trier's suzerainty.

During the Palatinate War of Succession in 1689, it was destroyed by French troops, as were the neighboring Treis Castle and many other castles located on the left bank of the Rhine. At this time, it was no longer of strategic importance and was not rebuilt.

In 1956, the ruin, as well as the ruin of Treis Castle, was bought by a private individual and restored.