The name of the castle is made up of the Middle High German words stahel for steel and corner as a designation for a mountain spur and means impregnable castle on a mountain spur. [1] It was probably built at the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century and was a fiefdom of the Electorate of Cologne. [2] [3] Since Bacharach had become a trading and stacking place for the Palatinate-Rheingau wine trade under the Count Palatinate near Rhine, [4] the facility also functioned as a customs castle.
From the beginning of the 13th century Stahleck was owned by Wittelsbach and remained there until the beginning of the 19th century, although it was besieged and conquered by various parties eight times during the Thirty Years' War. Badly damaged by explosions in 1689, Stahleck was in ruins after the end of the Palatinate Electoral State and property of the French state, which had to cede it to the Kingdom of Prussia in accordance with the provisions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
The Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Heritage Protection, which was then based in Koblenz, acquired the castle complex in 1909 from the Prussian domain administration and had it rebuilt as a youth hostel from 1925. The expansion during the 1920s and 1930s served as a role model throughout Germany. [4] However, the castle was not fully restored until 1967 when work on the keep was completed. The youth hostel operation continues to this day, so interior tours are not possible. The large viewing terrace offers a good view of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley there, as part of which the complex has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002. Because of its importance as a particularly valuable historical building, Stahleck Castle has also been under protection under the Hague Convention since 1989. Source: Wikipedia