Burg Eltz

Burg Eltz sits on a rock in the narrow valley of the Elzbach, hemmed in by forest, which is why it looks like several castles glued together: branches of the family built upwards on the same cramped footprint over five centuries. It has never been sold and has stayed with the same family for more than thirty generations, so the interiors are furnished with what accumulated rather than what a curator chose. The approach matters as much as the arrival. You come down through beech woods and the towers appear all at once through the trees, which is the view that once put the castle on a German banknote.

History

By 1157 the castle was an important part of the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick Barbarossa. Its only serious fighting came in the Eltz Feud of 1331-1336, when Johann of Eltz and other free imperial knights opposed the territorial policies of Balduin von Trier, Elector and Prince-Archbishop of Trier. Philipp zu Eltz began the ten-storey Greater Rodendorf House in 1470, named after the family's lands in Lorraine and finished around 1520, and the Little Rodendorf House followed in 1540, also in late Gothic style (Wikipedia, Eltz Castle).

What's there

• The first view from the path - towers rising out of the beech woods with no road in sight.
• The furnished apartments - rooms kept by one family across generations rather than restored to a theme.
• The treasury - goldsmith work, arms and household silver in the vaults below the courtyard.
• The valley walk - the Elzbach path up from Moselkern station, about an hour each way through the gorge.

When to go

The castle opens roughly from April to early November and shuts for winter, when only the outside can be seen from the path. Weekday mornings are far calmer than weekend afternoons. Tours run in German with English at set times, so ask at the ticket desk on arrival. Autumn colour in the valley is the best reason to come late.

Before you go

Interiors are seen only in a guided group that moves briskly through a handful of rooms, and many people find the tour the weakest part of the day. The last stretch is downhill going in and uphill coming out. Parking fills by mid morning in summer. There is no station within reach except by the hour long valley path.

Nearby

Moselle vineyards and Cochem, the abbey lake in the Eifel near Maria Laach, and Koblenz where the rivers meet.

Key facts