Altdahn Castle, Burg Altdahn

Dahn, Germany, Germany

---

Altdahn Castle, also known as Burg Altdahn, is one of three massive clifftop castles in the Dahn complex near Dahn in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, likely built in the early 13th century on a sandstone ridge as a Reichsburg possibly renamed from "Than" after the von Dahn family took possession around 1236 under Speyer Bishop Konrad IV von Dahn.

Run by Friedrich von Dahn as a Lehnsmann, it endured repeated destruction—in 1363 by Fleckensteins, 1372 by peace order, 1406 in the War of the Four Lords, fires in 1426/1438, and upgrades to a Kanonenburg in the 15th century with hufeisenförmige Torbastionen—before the Alt-Dahn line died out in 1519.

Further ravaged in the Thirty Years' War and razed by French General Mélac in 1689, a 1820 rockfall buried the Palas; restored since 1877 and post-WWII, it now draws hikers to its preserved walls and chambers.