Ramstein Castle

The ruins of Ramstein Castle stand on a 182-metre-high, Bunter sandstone rock on the edge of the Meulenwald forest in the lower, steep-sided Kyll valley near Kordel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It stands 9 kilometres north of Trier and the same east of Luxembourg.

The hill castle was built in the early 14th century by the Archbishop of Trier, Diether of Nassau as the successor to a fortified manor farm. From then on, it was a fief castle of the Electorate of Trier which was enfeoffed to electoral subjects and cathedral deans. During the War of the Palatine Succession, the castle was occupied by French troops and largely blown up in 1689. The great damage was not repaired. However, tall sections of curtain walls, elements of corner towers and almost of all the exterior and the stone staircases of its medieval tower house stand.