The story of Vianden Castle

In 1820 this castle was sold for 3,200 florins to an alderman named Wenzel Coster, and he began to take it apart. Piece by piece he sold the roof tiles, the wooden panelling, the doors and the windows, even the copper and lead gutters, until only a ruin was left. People were so indignant that in 1827 King William I, himself a count of Vianden, bought the ruin back for 1,100 florins.

The story of this rock goes back much further. The first structure here was built in 275 on the Roman road between Reims and Cologne. Around 1100 a residential castle with a square keep, a kitchen and a chapel appeared, and it became the seat of the influential counts of Vianden.

Later it passed to the House of Nassau, and in 1621 Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau added the Renaissance Nassau Mansion. Rising to 310 metres above the River Our, it is one of the largest fortified castles west of the Rhine.