Burg Eltz

Pat and I continued our holiday by touring the Mosel Valley. On the way to our base at Cochem we visited the very picturesque castle of Burg Eltz which you can see in the photograph here. There are a number of routes available to get to the castle, but if you simply want to have a good view of the castle without a very long walk before hand, make sure you go via Münstermaifeld and follow the signs for the Park and Ride Car Park ("P+R") as the other car parks leave you with a long way to walk before you get any reasonable view of the castle. Burg Eltz is very unusual. Rather than being built on a hilltop it is built in a narrow valley floor.

It originated no later than the 12th Century and for 400 years it served as a defensive home for various branches of the Eltz family. Eventually the family had a disagreement with Balduin, the Elector of Trier. This resulted in a two-year siege, during which Burg Truteltz was built by Balduin directly infront of Burg Eltz in order to lob rocks at the castle. After Burg Eltz fell the Eltz family were allowed to continue living in the castle as vassals of Balduin.

Most of what you can now see was built in the 15th Century. The castle escaped destruction by the French in 1689 only because a member of the Eltz family happened to be an officer in the French army.