The castle belongs to the municipality of Sankt Johann in Rhineland-Palatinate and is located northwest of Mayen on a rocky outcrop at the confluence of the Nitzbach and Nette rivers. Along with Eltz Castle and Lissingen Castle, Bürresheim Castle is one of the few aristocratic residences in the Eifel region that was never conquered or destroyed, surviving unscathed both the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries and the social upheavals resulting from the French Revolution. Its history was largely shaped by its location on the border between the two ecclesiastical electorates of Cologne and Trier.