Liebeneck Castle

I have been telling you about my cruise down the Rhine last spring here on the blog.  I was lucky enough to take a Viking River Cruise with my friends called the Rhine Getaway and we spent time in Holland, Germany, France and Switzerland.  When we booked the cruise, the agent told me this was the Castle and Cathedral Cruise because we spent a lot of time visiting those two attractions.  We had already visited the Cathedral in Cologne and Marksburg Castle in Braubach, and now we were spending an afternoon cruising through the Rhine River Gorge where there were castles on every corner, so to speak.

And after sailing by the Village of Spay, this impressive Neo-Renaissance structure came into view.

This is Liebeneck Castle which sits above the town of Osterspai in Germany.  It is also referred to as Castle Love Corner and Castle Liebenstein, after the Liebenstein family, the original Lords that built a castle on this site in the late 1500’s.

Sometime in the late 1800’s the building that you see here was built on the foundations of the original castle.  It was built as a hunting lodge and is very different from the many other castles that we would see this day.

As with many castles in this region, during more recent World Wars they were occupied by French or German troops and used for military or hospital duties.

We were told that now this castle is once again a private residence, not open for tours.

What a view they must have of the Rhine below.

And across the Rhine on the other side, they can view vineyards climbing up the banks.

This is where we first started seeing the famous German vineyards on the Rhine.

We were amazed at how many there were and how they really did literally climb up the banks.  Currently there are only a few wineries here in Osterspai due to an insect infestation about the time the castle was rebuilt.  Now the area focuses on fruit crops such as apple, pear, cherry, quince and peach along with grapes and wine.

But it was time to sail on to our next little town on the Rhine.

Good bye, Liebeneck Castle!

This is not a sponsored post.  
This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. 

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