Stolzenfels Castle

Stolzenfels Castle
Schloss Stolzenfels
Stolzenfels Castle
Location within Germany
General information
Type	Schloss
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Town or city	Koblenz
Country	Germany
Coordinates	50°18′11″N 7°35′31″E / 50.303°N 7.592°E / 50.303; 7.592
Construction started	1836 (today's palace)
Completed	1842
Inaugurated	14 September 1842
Renovated	2011
Client	Frederick William IV of Prussia (renovation)
Owner	Rhineland-Palatinate Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe
Design and construction
Architect	Johann Claudius von Lassaulx () and others
Website
http://schloss-stolzenfels.de/

Stolzenfels Castle (German: Schloss Stolzenfels) is a former, medieval fortress castle ("Burg") turned into a palace, near Koblenz on the left bank of the Rhine, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Stolzenfels was a ruined 13th-century castle, gifted to the Prussian Crownprince, Frederick William in 1823. He had it rebuilt as a 19th-century palace in Gothic Revival style. Today, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

The original castle at Stolzenfels was built as a fortification by the Prince-Bishop of Trier, then Arnold II. von Isenburg (). Finished in 1259, Stolzenfels was used to protect the toll station on the Rhine, where the ships, at the time the main means of transportation for goods, had to stop and pay toll (later moved to Engers).

Over the years it was extended several times (notably in the 14th century), occupied by French and Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War and finally, in 1689, destroyed by the French during the Nine Years' War.

The ruin was used as a quarry during the 18th century.

In 1802, the castle became the property of the city of Koblenz. In 1823, the ruined castle was given as a gift by the city to Prussian Crownprince Frederick William IV of Prussia. In 1822, the Rhineland had become a province of Prussia. Frederick William had traveled along the Rhine in 1815, the year when the Congress of Vienna awarded several Princedoms in the area to Prussia, and had been fascinated by the beauty, romance and history of the region. In the spirit of Romanticism, Frederick William now had the castle rebuilt as a Gothic Revival palace, inspired by his cousin Frederick's rebuilding of nearby Rheinstein Castle and his cousin Maximilian II of Bavaria's romantic renovation of Hohenschwangau Castle.