Trutzeltz Castle

The ruins of Trutzeltz Castle (German: Burg Trutzeltz), also known as Balduineltz, Baldeneltz or Neueltz, are the remains of a hill castle in the valley of the Elz in the parish of Wierschem near the town of Münstermaifeld. It was built as a counter-castle during the medieval Eltz Feud in the Moselle region.

Trutzeltz stands just 230; meters north of Eltz Castle and 40; meters higher at an elevation of 360 m above sea level (NN) on the rising hillslopes. The very small castle site measures just 30 × 25 meters. The ruins consist mainly of the still over 10 meter-high remains of the tower house and other foundation walls.

The castle was built by the Archbishop of Trier, Baldwin during the Eltz Feud (1331-1336/1337) as a siege castle to invest Eltz Castle. The Eltz Feud arose in connection with Baldwin's territorial policy. During his reign, Baldwin sought to extend the influence of Trier along the Moselle. He repeatedly came up against resistance from knights who had refused to recognize their vassal (tenant) status, and 21 of them - the lords of Eltz, Waldeck, Schoneck, and Ehrenberg - agreed on a formal defensive alliance. Baldwin attempted a direct assault on Eltz which failed. In response, he had the siege castle of Trutzeltz built, probably in 1331.

The castle was also referred to as Baldeneltz, probably after the archbishop. The following year he also erected the Rauschenburg as a counter castle to the three other castles allied with Eltz. That Baldeneltz was probably built in a very short time to put the lords of Eltz under pressure, can be seen inter alia from the building material used: mostly small pieces of broken stone from the vicinity of the siege castle itself. It was held together with a strong clay mortar, which however cannot withstand a Central European climate in the long run. For a siege castle, this was not important, but it is remarkable in that light that the continued existence of the castle was contractually assured in a subsequent peace treaty.

Eltz Castle was bombarded from the siege castle with rock catapults (trebuchets), but was not able to be captured. In the course of the fighting, Baldwin also used an early form of cannon, the pot-de-fer, which has been determined from archaeological finds at Eltz.

The Lord of Eltz and the other warring knights finally had to agree to end hostilities in 1333.

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

Trutzeltz Castle ranks #4,357 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #333 of the 505 mapped in Germany. Founded 1336, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 604 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,197 times in the last 60 days, more than 69% of the atlas. 20 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Koblenz, 25 km away. It is one of the 43 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Moselle. It is stop 13 of 27 on the Moselle castle route, Trier to Koblenz. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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