Landshut is a castle that dominates Bernkastel-Kues, and is not to be confused with another castle of the same name northeast of Munich. Some type of fortification was present on this hill all the way back to the 600s.
Heinrich von Vinstingen and his successor Boemund built the current castle around 1277, and it became a meeting place of such dignataries as the Archbishop of Trier in the 14th and 15th Centuries. By 1550, it was popularly known as Landshut. Having survived the wars that were fought around it, the castle fell victim to an accidental fire in 1692, destroying all of the artwork that had been collected within. Today, it has a restaurant, and at one time had a hotel as well, but as of 2007 this appeared to be closed.
The three views above show the castle from different distances, with the one at the right showing how the castle's location dominated the area.
The keep has an interesting feature often overlooked. The current entrance could possibly be either a second or a new one, as it appears that the main entrance was further up. The side of the keep still bears the scars of a winding staircase that reached the doorway, and below the doorway are the tell-tale signs of where a landing had once been installed. Being made of wood, these were lost to the fire in 1692.
The walk to the castle (right) takes about 20-30 minutes and is quite nice... if the weather cooperates! In Sept 2007, when these photos were taken, the previous day was nice, but the next day's hike to the castle was in mist and light fog. Nevertheless, the grey sky provided an excellent backdrop to offer a view of the castle's structure.
The two photos below are not mirror images, but rather show the almost triangular south side of the castle where the keep is located. This allowed the keep to easily defend these two sides.
