Nassau Castle

The Nassau castle ruin (Rhein-Lahn district) towers high above the Lahn valley and the town of the same name. The main task of Nassau Castle was to secure the road leading from Wiesbaden to Koblenz, today's bathing road. Before 1128, Laurenburg Count Ruprecht I illegally erected a fortification on this mountain cone, which is owned by the Worms monastery. In 1159, the Hochstift transferred its Nassau properties to Archbishop Hillin von Trier, who handed over Nassau Castle to the Laurenburg family as a fief. These have been known as Counts of Nassau since 1160 at the latest. The castle then remained in their possession. At the beginning of the 16th century, the complex began to deteriorate. In 1806 it became the property of the Duchy of Nassau and in 1866 to the Prussian government. Before 1873, this established the first guest house for tourists in the castle. Today, the landscape-defining castle ruin belongs to the Directorate General for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate, Directorate for Castles, Palaces, Antiquities.