Germany · 12th century
Stahleck Castle (German: Burg Stahleck) is a 12th-century fortified castle in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley at Bacharach in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It stands on a crag approximately 160 metres (520 ft) above sea level on the left bank of the river at the mouth of the Steeg valley, approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Koblenz, and offers a commanding view of the Lorelei valley. Its name means "impregnable castle on a crag", from the Middle High German words stahel (steel) and ecke (here: crag). It has a water-filled partial moat, a rarity in Germany. Built on the orders of the Archbishop of Cologne, it was destroyed in the late 17th century but rebuilt in the 20th and is now a hostel.
Text adapted from “Stahleck Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Stahleck Castle ranks #1,186 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #95 of the 711 mapped in Germany. Founded c. 1150, it is older than 80% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 756 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,303 times in the last 60 days, more than 84% of the atlas. 22 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Wiesbaden, 34 km away. It is one of the 39 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Middle Rhine. It is stop 11 of 32 on the Rhine castle route, Bingen to Koblenz. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
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