With its crenellated turrets, ornate gables and fortifications, Schloss Stolzenfels exudes the sentimental beauty for which the Romantic Rhine is famed. Originally built in the 13th century to impose illegal river tolls, it had all the necessary features: a drawbridge, a keep, an impressive gateway and a chapel.
A Prussian king rebuilt the castle, ruined by the French, as his summer residence in 1823. Today, the rooms largely remain as the king left them. There is an impressive exhibit of armor and weaponry.
The castle is about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of the center of Koblenz. Koblenz is located at the meeting point of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers, halfway between Cologne and Frankfurt.
