Drachenfels Castle is about 7 kilometres (4 mi) north of the Franco-German border on the eponymous 150-metre-long bunter sandstone rocks which are on a ridge at an elevation of 368 metres (1,207 ft) above sea level.

Because of its present appearances the remains of the tower are known as the Backenzahn ("molar tooth") by the locals and make it one of the most striking castles in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Man-made chambers have been hewn out of a rock massif opposite the castle, the so-called Buchkammerfels, which lies on the Heidenberg, 420 metres (1,380 ft) high.

The first lesser nobleman who it is known with any certainty had a connexion with this castle in the Wasgau is Walter of Drachenfels (also Waltherus de Drachenvels) in 1245.

At this time Drachenfels was besieged and partially destroyed, forcing its lords to gradually sell off parts of the castle from 1344.

On 10 May 1523, after his defeat by the allied armies of three imperial princes, the castle was finally destroyed, although the Burgvogt who occupied it with just eight servants had surrendered without a fight owing to the odds that he was faced with.

In 1778 a descendant of its owners, Freiherr Franz Christoph Eckbrecht von Dürkheim, built a manor house in the village of Busenberg with the stones from Drachenfels, which is known today as the Schlösschen ("little palace").

In the rooms hewn out of the rock, putlock holes and other manmade marks chiselled into the sandstone indicated that it was once entirely covered by timber framed or stone buildings.

Since 1990, the remains of two other towers, a small outer bailey as well as walls and buildings have been the focus of conservation and excavation activities by the "Directorate General for Cultural Heritage in Rhineland-Palatinate".

The visitor first enters the tower, which admittedly was added later, but is made throughout of rusticated ashlars with lifting holes on which numerous stone marks can be seen.