Bertradaburg

The Bertradaburg is a ruined hill castle on a rock spur, 348 m above sea level (NN), above the village of Mürlenbach in the county of Vulkaneifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It thus stands in the geographical centre of Merovingian Francia.

The castle was built on the remains of a Roman castrum, which probably guarded the Roman road from Trier to Cologne. In the castle, according to local tradition, Bertrada, the mother of Charlemagne is said to have lived which implies that his birth was around 747 AD. The existence of the castle is first recorded in the 13th century when it is mentioned as a state fortress of the princely imperial abbey of Prüm (cf. the Middle Rhine Register or Mittelrheinisches Urkundenbuch), archaeological finds have indicated that there were earlier fortifications on the site.

After Prüm Abbey was occupied and damaged by French Revolutionary troops from 1794 to 1802, Mürlenbach's castle was seized as part of the forced secularisation of the abbey estate and auctioned by France to a private owner.

In the late 20th century, the surviving castle walls and buildings were restored by the Tiepelmann family and the state-owned, 30-metre-high, ruined double tower gate was rebuilt with state finance. In 2009, the nine owners were given a grant from the federal and state budgets to secure and maintain the 16th-century, five-metre-thick, southwest roundel. The 13th-century shield wall was also renovated with funding from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The 30-metre-high tower house, the double tower gateway of the Betradaburg, is visible from a long way off. It has good views of the surrounding countryside and may be visited as part of a guided tour. Every year the Mürlenbach Castle Festival (Mürlenbacher Burgfest) takes place. The castle is privately owned and has holiday apartments which are currently being renovated.

Text adapted from “Bertradaburg” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bertradaburg ranks #5,906 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #455 of the 505 mapped in Germany. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 69% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 861 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Trier, 44 km away. It is one of the 43 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Moselle. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗