The castles is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the village of Elmstein in the county of Bad Dürkheim in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The rock castle was probably built in 1246 by Pope Innocent IV during the unrest over the excommunication of Frederick II.

However, Count Palatine Rudolph II appealed against this decision and announced that the Sponheim lord was his vassal, so that he was allowed to retain the castle.

After the castle was mentioned for the last time in 1382, it probably came into the possession of the counts of Leiningen and was likely destroyed in 1470–71 during a feud between its tenant family and the prince-elector, Frederick I – the so-called Electoral Palatine War.

The Late Hohenstaufen inner ward is built on a narrow rock base that, today, is only accessible to experienced climbers.