Burg Neuenahr

Burg Neuenahr stands in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, and was built by local German medieval nobility.

Construction began around 1225 when Count Otto, son of Gerhard of Are and Nürburg, established the hilltop stronghold and became the first member of his family to take the name von Neuenahr. From its founding the castle functioned as the administrative seat of the County of Neuenahr. The family line is documented to pass from Otto to his sons Gerhard and Ludwig and onward through descendants including Theodorich, Wilhelm I, Krafto, Wilhelm II, Wilhelm III and Katharina. These successions prompted inheritance disputes that involved the Saffenburg branch and other male relatives.

In 1343 Wilhelm III received the castle as a fief from Archbishop Walram of Jülich, who acted in his capacity as Archbishop of Cologne. Decisive military action followed in 1372 when Archbishop Friedrich III of Saarwerden, supported by the citizen marksmen of Ahrweiler, laid siege to the stronghold to end the robber-knight activity associated with it. A contemporary Cologne chronicle reports that Friedrich captured and destroyed the castle in roughly ten days. After the operation the archbishop demanded 50,000 Gulden and took control of the castle hill on the condition that no fortress ever be rebuilt there, and the County of Neuenahr was to be divided equally between the parties involved.

The ruined site survived in that state for centuries. At the end of the 17th century the remaining walls were taken down and building stone removed for reuse, including material used to rebuild the former Rentmeister building at the foot of the castle hill, a building now known as the Beethovenhaus. Generations later some descendants of the former occupants, among them Hermann von Neuenahr the Elder, regained prominent social positions.