Pfalzgrafenstein Castle

In the middle of the Rhine at Kaub, a small white fortress rises from a narrow island like a ship riding at anchor, its pointed bow facing upstream into the current. Pfalzgrafenstein Castle was built not to guard a hill but to stop boats. For more than five centuries it collected tolls from river traffic on the Middle Rhine, and it survives almost unaltered as one of the most recognisable images of the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002. Victor Hugo compared it to a stone ship moored forever off the town.

The first part was the central tower, raised in 1326–27 by King Ludwig IV the Bavarian to increase his toll income. Standing alone on the island, it was built on a pentagonal plan with a sharp point upstream to break the force of floods and ice; today it is 36 metres high with six storeys. The new toll station angered the archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne, whose own revenues it threatened, and Pope John XXII urged them to act against Ludwig. Around 1340 a turreted outer wall was built around the tower, and in 1339 the castle was given to Ludwig's nephew, the Count Palatine Rudolf II, from whom it takes its name, "the Count Palatine's stone". Ships were stopped with chains across the passage; tolls were paid at the customs house in Kaub, and those who refused could be held in the castle's dungeon, a raft at the bottom of a well, until ransom was paid.

The castle withstood a 39-day siege in 1504 during the War of the Landshut Succession. In 1607 Elector Friedrich IV added a gun bastion pointing upstream, inner arcades and the outer wall as it now stands, making Pfalzgrafenstein the first castle on the Middle Rhine adapted to artillery. Spanish troops held it from 1620 during the Thirty Years' War. The Baroque cap on the tower dates from 1714, and the present appearance from repairs after a fire in 1756. On New Year's Day 1814 Russian engineers built a pontoon bridge here over which Field Marshal Blücher's army of some 60,000 men crossed the Rhine in pursuit of Napoleon. Toll collection ended in 1867, after Nassau passed to Prussia. The castle was restored between 1967 and 1975, when its Baroque colour scheme was renewed, and it is now a museum furnished with pieces from the 17th to 19th centuries. Above Kaub on the hillside stands Gutenfels Castle, which completes the view.

Getting there

The castle stands on Falkenau island in the Rhine beside Kaub, on the river's right bank in Rhineland-Palatinate, and is reached by a small ferry from Kaub. Bingen am Rhein is about 16 km upstream. Kaub lies on the railway line along the right bank of the Rhine. The nearest airport is Frankfurt-Hahn (HHN), about 39 km away; Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is the main international gateway.