Stauf Castle

Stauf Castle is the ruin of a spur castle near the Stauf district of the city of Eisenberg in the Donnersbergkreis (Rhineland-Palatinate).

Stauf Castle is located south of the district named after it, on a 327.1 m above sea level high mountain ridge that extends north above the Eisbach valley. It can be reached from Stauf via a forest path.

The castle was probably built before the year 1000 and, as "castellum Stoufenburc", is the oldest documented complex of its kind in the Palatinate.

Duke Konrad I of Carinthia from the Salian dynasty was mentioned as the first inhabitant around the year 1000. In the 12th century, the castle, as an imperial fief of the Staufer, from whom the name also originates, was owned by the Gottfried von Stauf family. Later, the owners changed (Counts of Eberstein, von Zweibrücken, von Sponheim-Bolanden, von Nassau-Saarbrücken-Weilburg). In the German Peasants' War in 1525, the castle, which consisted of an outer bailey (South Castle), a "Middle Castle" and the core castle (North Castle), was destroyed.

From 1871 to 2000, the Historischer Verein Rosenthal (Rosenthal Historical Association) owned the ruin, which was transferred to the city of Eisenberg in June 2000.