Gräfenstein Castle

Merzalben, Germany, Germany

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Gräfenstein Castle near Merzalben in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, was constructed around 1150–1200 by the Counts of Saarbrücken as a hilltop fortress on a 12-meter rock shelf to replace a destroyed stronghold, featuring a distinctive heptagonal bergfried tower unique in Germany and core structures from the Hohenstaufen era.

First mentioned in a 1237 Leiningen partition deed, it guarded borders between Worms, Speyer, and Metz dioceses, passing to Leiningen-Dagsburg in 1317, sold mostly to the Palatinate by 1367, and expanded by Leiningen-Hardenburg after 1421.

Destroyed in the 1525 Peasants' War, rebuilt from 1535 by Pfalzgraf Ruprecht who died there in 1544, it burned in 1635 during the Thirty Years' War and decayed thereafter, now a well-preserved ruin with panoramic views accessible via hiking trails.