Burg Kerpen (privat)

Kerpen, Germany, Germany

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Burg Kerpen is a medieval spur castle perched on a 500-meter dolomite hill above the village of Kerpen in Germany's Eifel region, Rhineland-Palatinate, privately owned and featuring a prominent 23-meter bergfried tower amid terraced structures.

Likely built around 1040 and first documented in 1106 under the Reichsministeriales von Kerpen, it changed hands through noble families like Gymnich, Brabant dukes, and Spanish Habsburgs, enduring repeated sieges, destructions in wars including 1282 by Cologne's archbishop, the Dutch Revolt of 1578–1579, and French demolitions in 1689 during the Nine Years' War.

After partial fills of its moats and failed 1793 reconstruction attempts amid French Revolutionary occupation, only earthworks and the street "An der Alten Burg" mark the site today, reflecting centuries of Rhineland conflicts.