Burgruine Sommerau

Sommerau, Germany, Germany

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Burgruine Sommerau is a picturesque 13th-century castle ruin perched on a rocky spur above the Ruwer Valley near Sommerau in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, built by the Trier knight family "von der Brücke" whose ancestral seat was in the Barbarathermen.

In 1303, Trier alderman Johann Walram entrusted it as a fief to the Archbishop of Trier, later passing to the Luxembourg knights "von der Fels" before falling into disrepair by the early 19th century, when the state acquired and protected it from quarrying.

The 40x10-meter site features a 10-meter-high western palace remnant, a 16-meter eastern square keep with Gothic elements like a high door and toilet bay on consoles, and a nearby waterfall amid Schlossberg vineyards, now a freely accessible hiking spot recognized for biodiversity.