Burg Meistersel

Ramberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Germany

---

Burg Meistersel near Ramberg in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, is one of the Pfalz's oldest rock castles, built in the 11th century during Salian times on a 492-meter hill above the Modenbach valley, likely as an imperial fortress possibly housing Trifels Castle's chamberlains—hence its name blending "Meister" (master) and "Saal" (hall).

Briefly owned by Speyer's Bishop Johannes I early in the 12th century before reverting to imperial hands, it suffered partial burning in the 1525 Peasants' War and final destruction in the Thirty Years' War, leaving a lower and upper bailey with restored gates, a Gothic window group in the palas ruins, rock-cut stairs, and a well shaft amid the Palatinate Forest.

Hikers reach it via a short 600-meter forest path from the Drei Buchen pass, where Bronze Age finds hint at far older settlement.