Germany · 19th century
Ehrenbreitstein Fortress (German: Festung Ehrenbreitstein, pronounced [ˌfɛstʊŋ eːʁənˈbʁaɪtʃtaɪn]), a fortress in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, stands on the east bank of the Rhine opposite the mouth of the Moselle, and overlooks the city of Koblenz.
Occupying the position of an earlier fortress destroyed by the French in 1801, it was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1828 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area which French troops had repeatedly invaded before. The Prussian fortress was never attacked.
Since 2002, Ehrenbreitstein has formed part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
Text adapted from “Ehrenbreitstein Fortress” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ehrenbreitstein Fortress ranks #289 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #30 of the 711 mapped in Germany. Founded 1828, it is older than 10% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 717 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 19,528 times in the last 60 days, more than 97% of the atlas. 28 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Koblenz, 1 km away. It is one of the 39 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Middle Rhine. It is stop 29 of 32 on the Rhine castle route, Bingen to Koblenz. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
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