It stands within the famous North Loop, or Nordschleife, of the Nürburgring racing course at an altitude of 678 m (2,224 ft) on a volcanic basalt cone.

The actual instigator of the Nürburg was Count Ulrich, who is named in a document from 1169, although his father, Dietrich I of Are, had already started the construction of a refuge castle on the mountain.

Ulrich's descendants called themselves the lords of Nürburg and Are and were vassals (Lehnsmänner) of the bishops of Cologne and the Hohenstaufen emperor.

After the construction of the rectangular inner ward or kernburg, the zwinger walls were built between 1340 and 1369 under the bailiff, Johann von Schleiden, as a second defensive ring.

In 1633, during the Thirty Years' War, the Nürburg was captured by the Swedes under General Baudissin, who plundered and damaged it.