Heimburg in Niederheimbach

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Heimburg from northeast

The Heimburg (also Hohneck castle, castle rare Hoheneck called ) is a medieval castle in the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Mainz- Bingen, Rhineland -Palatinate, Germany.

It is not to be confused with the same or similar-sounding castles Hohenecken at Kaiserslautern and Hoheneck at Ipsheim. The name of the home castle or the castle Hohneck, derived from the two forms " Hain ( bach ) eck " and " Hein ( bach ) burg " or " Hein ( bach ) mountain ", was played differently over the centuries: in 1305 initially Haineck, then Heyen castle, 1344 for the first time Heimburg as today. In 1350 it was called Castle Heymberg or Hoh ( e) neck.

Location

The hill fort stands on a promontory on the north-eastern escarpment of the Binger Forest right above Niederheimbach, which lies between Bingen and Bacharach on the Rhine. From Bingen and from there Rheinknie she is about 10 and 8 km (air line).

History

End of the 13th century Niederheimbach was as Electoral Mainz holding an enclave because the Count Palatine of the Rhine some castles ( Furstenberg, Sooneck castle, castle stone rich ) and possession of both north and south gained from it. In order to secure his property, let the Archbishop of Mainz, the home castle of about 1294 ( other data refer to 1290 ) to build in 1305 as a frontier castle. It was reinforced in 1315 and 1326 to '28.

After the Palatinate in 1344 in favor of Kurmainz renounced his possessions, the castle was quickly strategically meaningless.

Until 1438 it was the seat of a lower court in Mainz. Like most castles in the Middle Rhine Valley, it was destroyed during the Palatinate War of Succession. In the course of Rhine Romanticism was a partial reconstruction by the ophthalmologist Teut Wacker Barth and then by Eduard Rabeneck.

In the later expansion by the industrialist Hugo Stinnes the gatehouse and the living quarters were built southeast. Additional window openings and battlements also date from this period. The foundations of the tower and the curtain wall date back to the Middle Ages.

The castle is now privately owned and not open to visitors.