No. 50967
Schmidtburg
Germany
CastleRuin10th century
No. 37247
Castle · Germany
Burg Koppenstein, Gemünden/Hunsrück
CastleRuinInstitutional
No. 37247 · 49.877 N, 7.489 E
Quick summary
Burg Koppenstein, Gemünden/Hunsrück is a castle in Germany, listed as reference No. 37247.
Burg Koppenstein, Gemünden/Hunsrück is a castle in Gemünden/Hunsrück, Germany with origins associated with the 14th century.
See all castles in GermanyBurg Koppenstein in Gemünden/Hunsrück, Germany, was built by the medieval Counts of Sponheim.
The hill on which the castle stands is recorded as Koppenstein as early as the twelfth century, and archaeological traces point to occupation before the surviving medieval work, including defensive ditches and stone ramparts that predate the later masonry. The visible stone constructions that define the site today were raised by the Sponheim lineage after 1325. Within a few years of that building activity, the settlement at the foot of the hill was granted town rights in 1330.
A local noble house adopted the castle’s name. The von Koppenstein family descended from an illegitimate son of Count Johann II of Sponheim-Kreuznach, who died in 1340, and held substantial Sponheim fiefs over the centuries. The family returned those fiefs in 1759. Jakob Adolf von Koppenstein, the last male to bear the name, died in 1768 and appointed Damian Freiherr Schenk von Schmidtburg as his heir.
The castle and its adjacent settlement had been abandoned and fallen into ruin by the time of the Thirty Years’ War. In the early 1800s the hill served as the place where proceeds from the robbery at Otzweiler and a separate crime by the outlaw known as Schinderhannes were divided. Today the ruin and the surrounding castle lands, together with Schloss Gemünden, are held by descendants of the Schmidtburg line, the Freiherren von Salis.
Condition
The ruined stronghold crowns the Koppensteiner Höhe at 554.9 meters above sea level, overlooking the Kellenbach valley in the western Soonwald. The site sits about two kilometres in a straight line to the south of Gemünden and roughly twelve kilometres south of Simmern. The plan presents a compact hilltop fortification focused on a dominant defensive tower, with limited surviving building fabric and conspicuous earthworks framing the position.
The most complete survival is the pentagonal main defensive tower, standing at about twenty metres in height. This tower dates to the post-1325 phase of construction associated with the Counts of Sponheim and remains sufficiently intact to be climbed. Its form and preservation make it the principal vertical landmark on the site and afford wide views over the surrounding forested valley.
Other castle buildings and the former settlement are represented mainly by scattered foundation walls and fragmentary masonry. These remains indicate the locations of ancillary structures but survive only as low walls and floor-level courses. They attest to a once larger ensemble of domestic and service buildings clustered below and around the main tower.
The defensive earthworks around the hill are prominent. A surrounding ditch reaches depths of up to ten metres and in places widens to about twenty metres across, marking the primary approach barrier. Earlier fortifications on the site include additional ditches and stone ramparts, features that reveal an evolving series of defensive measures used before and alongside the later stone construction. These earth and stone works remain visible in situ and frame the ruined masonry that dominates the hilltop.
Location
Nearby castles
No. 82964
Burg Dill
Germany
CastleRuin11th century
No. 61332
Burg Schloßböckelheim
Germany
CastleRuin9th century
No. 80194
Burg Montfort
Germany
CastleRuin15th century
Comments
Sign in to join the discussion
Comments for Burg Koppenstein, Gemünden/Hunsrück will require a verified account before posting.
We'll send a verification link before your first comment is published.