: Losse, 2003), who remained the owners of their ancestral castle and turned it into a jointly-owned inheritance or Ganerbenburg.

William's son, Frederick, died childless, so that the castle fell to his sister, Margareta.

At the beginning of the 16th century, Dietrich IV of Manderscheid-Schleiden had a castle chapel built in the Gothic style.

When he died childless in 1593, his brother-in-law, Philip of the Mark, had Kerpen Castle occupied by those loyal to him in order to lay claim to the estate.

The Arenberg family remained owners until 1794, but never realised their initial plans to have the castle transformed into a schloss.

During the Thirty Years' War, soldiers of the French army under General Bouffleur blew up the castle and village and razed them to the ground.

In 1911, Eifel painter, Fritz von Wille, bought the castle from Clemens Manstein and had urgent safety and repair work carried out.

Kerpen Castle is built on a triple-terraced, hill spur, which is guarded to the north by a roughly 15-metre-wide neck ditch.