Pyrmont Castle

Pyrmont Castle, 2015 aerial photograph

View from Pillig to the east

Depiction of the castle on a 1921 Notgeld note

Pyrmont Castle (German: Burg Pyrmont) stands west of Münstermaifeld near Roes and Pillig on a slate rock outcrop above a waterfall on the Elzbach in the southern Eifel mountains in Germany. It is on the parish of Roes in the county of Cochem-Zell.

history

The rock castle was built at the end of the 12th century on count palatine territory by Cuno of Schönburg, whose son Cuno II called himself "Lord of Pyrmont", the first member of his family to used the title. The castle is first recorded in 1225.

In 1441, Cuno VI of Pyrmont laid down by his will and testament how his inheritance (and thus also Pyrmont Castle) should be divided between his three quarrelsome sons, Henry VI, John and Frederick, in order to protect the ancestral seat of the dynasty from division by inheritance. But this did not prevent the squabblers from fighting over the castle after their father's death. Henry VI of Pyrmont even had the Reichsacht imposed on him as a result of the inheritance dispute and the administration of his share of the castle was transferred to his brother, Frederick.

The castle did not witness more peaceful times until the second half of the 15th century, when Emperor Maximilian I elevated Henry IV, Lord of Pyrmont, to the status of a Freiherr. Although his marriages were blessed with two sons, his daughter, Elisabeth, was eventually to inherit the Pyrmont estate. Since she married Philip of Eltz, the castle fell to this important comital dynasty.

But even the Eltz family did not always agree on the distribution of their inheritance. In 1652, one of the Eltz heiresses sold her share to members of the family of Waldbott of Bassenheim because of the ongoing disputes who, two years later, were appointed imperial Freiherren thanks to their ownership of this estate.

In 1695, another Eltz share in Pyrmont Castle went to the Electorate of Trier and was also acquired by the Waldbott of Bassenheim family in 1710.

• 
  View from the west
• 
  Interior view: kitchen
• 
  One of the round towers of the old zwinger
• 
  Castle pond
• 
  Pyrmont Mill on the Elzbach Falls with the castle behind
• 
  Pyrmont Castle, 2015 aerial photograph

Literature

• Bernhard Gondorf: Burg Pyrmont in der Eifel. Ihre Geschichte und ihre Bewohner. Bachem, Cologne, 1983, ISBN 3-7616-0701-6.
• Bernhard Gondorf: Burg Pyrmont. 3rd edn. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich, 1997. (=Große Baudenkmäler, Issue 392)
• Rolf Italiaander: Burg Pyrmont in der Eifel. Edition Pyrmont, Roes, 1965.
• Matthias Kordel: Die schönsten Schlösser und Burgen in der Eifel. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen, 1999, ISBN 3-86134-482-3, pp. 62–63.
• Bruno Krekler: Burg Pyrmont. Rettung eines Baudenkmals. Edition Pyrmont, Roes [1990].

External links

• Website of Pyrmont Castle
• Entry on Pyrmont Castle in EBIDAT, the databank of the European Castles Institute