Ruine der Reichsburg Landskron

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, Germany

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Ruine der Reichsburg Landskron towers above Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler in Germany's Ahr Valley as a high medieval hill castle ruin on the 272-meter basalt peak known as Landskrone, built around 1206 by Burgrave Gerhard von Sinzig with Staufen backing as a strategic stronghold guarding trade routes between Aachen and Frankfurt.

This seat of the Burgraves of Landskron endured fierce Staufen-Welf conflicts and multiple sieges before deliberate destruction in 1682 on orders from Pfalzgraf Johann Wilhelm, who mined its Kronenturm during the Nine Years' War to deny enemies a base.

Remnants include an upper gate with drawbridge slot, double-winged lower gate, eastern zwinger walls, and a Romanesque Marienkapelle from around 1470 with a basalt grotto behind its altar. Privately owned yet leased to the city, the preserved site offers sweeping Ahrtal views via hiking trails, with 1906-1910 excavations revealing Roman artifacts from its reuse as a lookout.