Toll castle

A customs Castle is a castle which was to secure and monitor a customs station in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. She was therefore always in the vicinity of important trade routes, such as the Alpine passes or the Middle Rhine. Such a castle was usually strategically located at border crossings, river crossings or mountain passes and had armed guards. The actual customs taking place lay at her feet on the road and the river, and was often connected by walls with the weir.

Customs castles were under the respective sovereign or of this security given to the imposition of the duty or commission vassals or ministeriales and usually also took other administrative and representative functions, such as the Stahleck castle above Bacharach. However, there were tariff- castles, such as Charles Fried or located in the Rhine castle Pfalz Castle near Kaub, which served only the survey of a ship's duty.