Burgruine Ehrenfels

Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany, Germany

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Burgruine Ehrenfels is a picturesque medieval castle ruin perched 80 meters above the Rhine River near Rüdesheim am Rhein in Hesse, Germany, marking the entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

Built between 1208 and 1220 by Philipp III of Bolanden for the Archbishop of Mainz, it features a trapezoidal inner bailey with a three-story palas facing the river, massive shield walls up to 20 meters high, and two round flanking towers originally 33 meters tall, designed to control Rhine navigation and tolls alongside the nearby Mouse Tower.

Occupied during the Thirty Years' War but surviving intact until 1689, when French troops under Louis XIV destroyed it during the War of the Palatine Succession, the site—now state-owned since 1945—underwent repairs to prevent further decay and remains viewable only from outside amid vineyards.