Lissingen Castle

Gerolstein, Germany, Germany

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Lissingen Castle is a well-preserved former moated castle on the River Kyll in Gerolstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, dating to the 13th century with Roman settlement origins and Frankish fortifications from the 9th century after Norman raids on Prüm Abbey.

First documented in 1212 under the Ritter von Liezingen, it features Gothic keeps from 1280 and circa 1400, was divided into upper and lower castles in 1559 with separate owners, and saw Renaissance gatehouses added in 1624 while the lower castle was rebuilt as a manor in 1661–63 by Ferdinand Zandt von Merl.

Never destroyed—unlike most Eifel castles—it became an autonomous Imperial Knight seat under the Zandt family until French Revolution secularization in 1794, later serving in WWII as a Wehrmacht billet and POW prison, today privately owned with visible medieval towers and Baroque elements.