Hambach Castle

There is little known about its early history; there are speculations without any proof that it was founded as an Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) or that Emperor Henry IV had started his Walk to Canossa there in 1076.

Bishop Marquard of Speyer, who was in office from 1560 to 1581, only arranged a very provisional rebuilding of the residential buildings and made the ruin the seat of a forester.

In 1816 after the Congress of Vienna the ruin became the property of the Kingdom of Bavaria together with the complete "linksrheinische Pfalz" (literally translated: left-Rhine Palatinate).

A short time later citizens of Neustadt gave the worthless estate to the Bavarian King Maximilian II as a "wedding present".

In 1844 Bavaria began to rebuild the castle in neo-gothic style, August von Voit had provided the plans.

In the context of the Hambacher Fest of 1832 the then-ruined castle was the focal point of the discontent of the Palatinate people over the repressive measures of the Bavarian administration which had been in office since 1816.

During the whole year events and receptions of the federal state Rhineland-Palatinate, the District Bad Dürkheim and the city Neustadt an der Weinstraße take place here.

A VIP guest in May 1985 was US President Ronald Reagan with his speech "an die Jugend der Welt" (to the youth of the world).

In 2002 it became part of a new charity: its owners are now the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Bezirksverband Pfalz, the District Bad Dürkheim and the city of Neustadt an der Weinstraße.