ウーデンハイムの洞窟・トップ5

The former country hotel has become a retirement home

On the archway of Sörgenloch Castle is the coat of arms of Barons Köth von Wanscheid from the 18th century. The history of Sörgenloch Castle goes back to the 12th century. At that time, the place was owned by the St. Alban Monastery in Mainz and was more of an estate with a few residential buildings than a real town as we know it today. The estate's task was to supply the monastery with food and money through the so-called "tithe". However, it is unknown who managed the estate on behalf of the monastery. The place attracted attention around the same time that Sörgenloch Castle was built. At that time, coins and vessels from the Iron Age and antiquity were found. The Celts and the Romans had also already settled here. The place around Sörgenloch Castle gained economic importance as an important place of pilgrimage in the 17th century. The money of the pilgrims who came to visit was also responsible for the fact that a simple manor house could be turned into the castle we see today a good 100 years later. The small Renaissance-style castle was built by the Köth-Wanscheid family, who ruled the town in the 18th century. Sörgenloch Castle is no longer owned by the local lords, but is run privately as a restaurant. Also part of the castle, but now independent, are the Catholic rectory and a second, former castle.

The keep has been preserved and can be climbed. The upper (narrow) section is a bit dark, but the climb is worth it!

The customs tower was built around the year 1000 as a pass barrier on the road between Mainz and Bad Kreuznach! The name goes back to a legend of Saint Ursula of Cologne! On her way back from a pilgrimage to Rome, she crossed the Selz here with her entourage of 11,000 virgins. In the hope that another 11,000 virgins would follow the same path, the Schnorressänger from Elsheim took over the sponsorship in 2006.

Only one freestanding tower remains of the former Schwabsburg Castle. This tower, made of massive, bossed ashlars, was once the keep of the complex. Located on a Roman military road leading to Mommenheim, it once served to protect and maintain the power of the Hohenstaufen dynasty in and around Nierstein and Oppenheim. Where the castle was built is unknown, but a connection to the construction of Landskron Castle in Oppenheim is suspected, which suggests a date between 1125 and 1245. These buildings were destroyed by the Spanish in 1620 during the Thirty Years' War. Although no further remains of the complex exist, old sources mention a dining hall, a curtain wall, and various residential and commercial buildings. https://www.rheinhessen.de/a-burg-schwabsburg

Schwabsburg: a bold little town with an impressive castle, the town meanders through the valley like a snake below the castle and, thanks to its layout, retains its historical independence despite being incorporated into Nierstein.

Schwabsburger Schlossturm, aka "Rabenturm"

Schwabsburg Castle is the ruins of a hilltop castle at about 120 m above sea level. NN, on a mountain spur, U-shaped surrounded by the Schwabsburg district of the town of Nierstein in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate. Fast Facts The Schwabsburg was probably founded around 1210 and found its first documentary mention in 1257 in a royal document from Richard of Cornwall as a base of the Hohenstaufen rulers on the Rhine. In the 14th century the castle was pledged to the Archbishop of Mainz for 60 years and then became the property of the Palatinate Electors. Knight Wigand von Dienheim († November 26, 1331) was given Schwabsberg Castle as a fief in 1316 because of his high reputation with Emperor Ludwig IV (HRR). In the Thirty Years' War, the castle, like the entire Lower Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine, was destroyed from 1620 by an army led by the Spanish general and general Ambrosio Spinola or his successor Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba from spring 1621. In 1799 the castle was demolished after it was auctioned off.