The story of this place
Perched above Braubach on the Rhine, Marksburg is the only one of the river's dozens of medieval hilltop castles never to have been destroyed. First recorded around 1117, it was built to protect and tax river traffic, and its cannon and layered defences deterred every attacker across seven centuries. Because it was never sacked or blown up, it preserves an authentic medieval fortress — the great battery, the drawbridge, the torture chamber, the herb garden of poisonous and medicinal plants, and a kitchen still black with soot. In 1945 an American artillery shell briefly threatened it, but it survived intact. It is one of Germany's best-preserved castles and the seat of the German Castles Association.