Burg Nollig

History

Burg Nollig is located on the Middle Rhine near the town of Lorch. It was initially constructed around 1300 as a three-story, half-timbered fortified tower. Later in the 14th century, the building was clad with heavy masonry, and a Mainz charter of 1349 describes this stone expansion. The wooden framework is still visible from the inside.

The castle overlooks the town of Lorch, which has Roman heritage dating back to the 1st century, and it has been suggested that the floor plan of the castle follows the foundation walls of an earlier Roman fort. The castle was built as a counter-castle by the Archbishop of Mainz to balance the power in the region gained by the Counts Palatine on the opposite bank of the Rhine at Burg Fürstenberg, which Cologne had built but had to give up to the Palatinate under the Treaty of Bingen in 1344. Some recent research identifies it with the documented Burg Fürsteneck, which the Marshälle von Waldeck held as a fief from Mainz. It functioned as a watch tower.

Burg Nollig above the River Rhine.

The castle is nearly square, about 10 meters on each side, and a ditch also protected it. In 1936, the castle was bought by Fritz Wild, a gemstone cutter from Idar-Oberstein, who began a stylish renovation in 1939. The massive residential tower had reinforcements added as a shield wall, with large towers at the corners. The castle has no curtain wall, as the town walls performed this function.

The ruins of Burg Nollig have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002.

Castle Highlights

Burg Nollig sits majestically above the Rhine Valley on a ridge northwest of Lorch. Some researchers think it was a watchtower for Lorch and part of the town's fortifications rather than a full castle, but others question that. It is privately owned and cannot be entered. The Rheinsteig hiking trail runs beneath the ruin, but the best views can be seen by taking a river cruise on the River Rhine or from the opposite bank. According to a local legend, the ruin is linked to the Devil's Ladder of Lorch, in which a knight named Sabo was punished for his inhospitable nature when dwarves kidnapped his daughter.