vergrößern

Castle Burg Sooneck
55413 Niederheimbach
Telefon: +49 (0)6743 / 6064
Fax: +49 (0)6743 / 949258
Opening hours: 1. April - 30. September: 10.00a.m. - 06.00 p.m.
1. October - 30. November: 10.00 a.m. - 05.00 p.m.
1. January - 31. March: 10.00 a.m. - 05.00 p.m.
Last entry 45 mins before closing. Closed in December and on Mondays
Castle-Tavern. Only guided tours...

History: The lords "Von Hohenfels" from the abbey "Kornelimünster" hold the castle in 1241.
They were formidable robber-knights, what the "Rheinische Städtebund" was not willing to accept. Lord "Philipp von Hohenfels" was forced to sell castle sooneck 1270/1271 to the church of Mainz. But his son "Dietrich von Hohenfels" broke the agreement, so that King "Rudolf von Habsburg" captured and destroyed castle sooneck.
In April 1346 "Ritter Johann Marschall zu Waldeck" got the castle as a fiefdom from "Erzbischof Heinrich III" from Mainz and rebuilt it in the following years. After his death castle sooneck was inherited by four families. and so became a "Ganerbenburg".
When the waldeck family died out 1553 and then also the family "Von Breidbach zu Bürresheim", castle Sooneck became a ruin more and more. During the "Pfälzer Erbfolgekrieg"
Sooneck was destroyed 1689 by the troops of the french king "Ludwig XIV".
The prussian prince "Friedrich Wilhelm IV" and his brothers Wilhelm, Carl and Albrecht bought the castleruin 1834. They rebuilt the castle 1843 to 1861 as a hunting lodge. After a renovation from architect Carl Schnitzler and after World War I. castle sooneck was in public ownership. After World War II. "Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland-Pfalz" is responsible for Sooneck. The castle offers guided tours.

Text and photos: Jens Niemeyer, Stromberg