It is used today as a youth hostel and in summer as a venue for concerts and operas.

The hill castle is first recorded in 1217 as castrum in Munjoje by Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne.

In 1543 troops of Emperor Charles V besieged the site with heavy guns, captured it and plundered it together with the town of Monschau.

In the early 19th century the French administration declared the castle to be state property and sold it to a private buyer who had the roofs removed in 1836 and 1837 in order to avoid building tax.

As a result, the castle fell into ruins until, in the early 20th century, the government of the Rhine province secured and repaired it.