Reifferscheid Castle

[1] The content of the contemporary report relates to the destruction of the castle by its owner, Duke Henry of Limburg and Lower Lorraine.

Several years later, the brothers Gerhard and Philip of Reifferscheid divided their lordship, and a new branch of the family appeared: the lords of Wildenburg.

In 1385, shortly after John V of Reifferscheid had taken over the lordship, the castle was captured by troops of the Meuse-Rhine Alliance, the cities of Cologne and Aachen, the archbishops of Cologne and the Liège as well as the Duke of Jülich, because John had broken the Landfrieden by undertaking numerous raids in the local area and further afield.

On the remains of the old building substance, its owner had a representative schloss built in the Baroque style, and on the foundations of the old castle walls the houses of the former Burgfreiheit were rebuilt.

In the following decades it served as a quarry and supplied construction material for new buildings in the surrounding area, before it was returned to the possession of the Salm-Reifferscheid family, who had meanwhile been elevated to the status of princes in 1889.