Burg Rheinfels

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349034870516184242" />

My Image of Burg Rheinfels on Imagekind

Burg Rheinfels perches above Sankt Goar, and once covered five times its current area.

In 1245, Count Diether V of Katzenelnbogen built Rheinfels as an administrative and toll collection centre. It was shortly afterward besieged by the League of Rhenish Cities, but the Katzenelnbogen family thrived and maintained power through skilful financial, political and marital strategies. Burg Katz and Burg Rheinfels gave the family effective control of the Middle Rhine. When the last of the German Katzenelnbogen family died in 1479, Rheinfels was assumed by the House of Hesse, who turned it into a renaissance castle. In 1692, it was largely destroyed by Louis XIV of France. In 1794, it was seized by the French Revolutionary Army, and in 1796/97 it was blown up once more. Much of the castle is still a ruin, but it does contain a luxury hotel, wellness center, restaurant and museum

A story related to the castle tells of the Count of Rheinfel’s beautiful daughter, who was wooed and won by George Brömser of Rüdesheim. This love incensed a rival by name of Dietrich of Berg. The Count of Rheinfels agreed to follow his daughter’s desires, and the lovers fixed a marriage date. Brömser arrived at Rheinfels with the news that he was called upon to help put down a rebellion by the Swiss. Before leaving, he planted a linden tree which he dedicated to his patron, St. George. He told the maiden to tend it well, but that if it died, it meant that he, too, had died, and that she would be released from her vow to him. He then set off. News arrived that many were killed at the Battle of Morgarten, and after George failed to appear within a reasonable time, it was assumed that he had been killed. Dietrich of Berg again presented himself to gain her hand. She told him that she would remain true to George as long as the linden remained alive. Dietrich cut down a dead linden in the forest and switched it with the live linden. Upon seeing the dead linden, the girl told Dietrich that she would remain true to George even though he was dead. In his anger, Dietrich drew his dagger and killed her. Afterward, he hanged himself in a fit of remorse. George Brömser, who had sustained broken limbs and bleeding wounds in the battle, returned after he had healed. When he saw her grave, he gave up his noble statues, and took up the life of a wandering minstrel