850 Years of Fascinating History
Eltz Castle is considered the German knight’s castle par excellence. It has remained in the possession of the original family and was never destroyed. Its history is a wealth of myths and events, famous personalities and great art. A short portrait of the castle with the most important dates and facts as well as many interesting stories and information:
9th to 13th Century
The development of medieval castles, which we admire so much today because of their beauty and their fortifications, began in the 9th and 10th century. What used to be small manor houses surrounded by earthworks and palisades now became castles fortified with heavy walls. The prime period of castle construction was from the 11th to the 13th century – the period of the Stauffer dynasty. This eventful period also saw the first mention of the name Eltz.
The Year 1157
In 1157 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa issued a deed of donation, which was signed and sealed by Rudolf von Eltz as one of the witnesses. At this time he resided in a small castle complex next to the Eltzbach. Parts of this first castle, such as the Romanesque keep Platt-Eltz and four storeys of the former Romanesque "pallas" (living quarter), today integrated in the Kempenich Houses, can still be seen today. The probably oldest painted chimney in Germany and a recently discovered painted window arch also date from this period.
Eltz Castle was erected in a strategically important position: It was built along a trade route that linked the Moselle River – historically one of the most important trade routes in the German Empire – with the Eifel and the fertile Maifeld.
The castle and its surroundings form a harmonious unity: surrounded on three sides by the Eltzbach, the castle towers on an oval rock – the castle’s foundation – which in itself is up to 70 metres high. The architecture follows the shape of the rock, which results in the unusual shapes of the different rooms.
Eltz Castle (German: Burg Eltz) is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier, Germany. It is still owned by a branch of the same family (the Eltz family) that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. Bürresheim Castle (Schloss Bürresheim), Eltz Castle and Lissingen Castle are the only castles on the left bank of the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate which have never been destroyed.
埃爾茨城堡（德語：Burg Eltz）是德國的一座中世紀時期城堡。這座城堡是萊茵蘭-普法爾茨中萊茵河左岸地區的城堡中唯一一座從未被破壞過的城堡。在1965年至1992年時，埃爾茨城堡曾出現在500德國馬克鈔票的反面圖案上.
Platteltz, a Romanesque keep, is the oldest part of the castle, having begun in the 9th century as a simple manor with an earthen palisade. By 1157 the fortress was an important part of the empire under Frederick Barbarossa, standing astride the trade route from the Moselle Valley and the Eifel region.[2] In 1472 the Rübenach house, built in the Late Gothic style, was completed. Remarkable are the Rübenach Lower Hall, a living room, and the Rübenach bedchamber with its opulently decorated walls.
Between 1490 and 1540, the Rodendorf house was constructed, also in Late Gothic style. It contains the vaulted "banner-room".
The Kempenich houses were finished about 1530. Every room of this part of the castle could be heated; in contrast, other castles might only have one or two heated rooms.
