Falkenburg Castle

Wilgartswiesen, Germany, Germany

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Falkenburg Castle near Wilgartswiesen in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, is a medieval ruin on a 20-meter-high sandstone ridge, likely built in the 11th century as a successor to nearby Wilgartaburg to protect local villages and trade routes, with construction possibly starting around 1125 by Werner I of Bolanden.

Owned by families like Bolanden-Falkenstein, Leiningen, and Pfalzgrafs, it became an imperial fief and county seat by 1398, surviving the Peasants' War but changing hands through wars until French troops under Marshal Schönbeck demolished it in 1638 during conflicts post-Thirty Years' War.

Restored in the 1930s and 1970s, the site features remnants of walls, a bergfried tower base, and baileys, now accessible year-round as a hiking landmark overlooking the Frankenweide region.