Burg Wertheim, Medieval castle ruins in Wertheim, Germany

Burg Wertheim is a ruined hill castle on a narrow rock spur above the town, between the Main and Tauber valleys. Behind a deep neck ditch the buildings climb stepped rock terraces: the slender bergfried about 25 m high stands within the upper ward, enclosed on the east by a high mantel wall, next to the palas with its 13th-century three-part Staufer window groups. An octagonal stair tower with a portal of 1562 links palas and residential building; lower down, the outer ward grew into a residential castle, where the "new" Löwenstein building of around 1600 overtops the Johannesbau, and a late Gothic oriel with pierced tracery parapet projects toward the Tauber valley.

The Counts of Wertheim, a Franconian noble family, first called themselves after the place in 1132, and construction of the castle probably began around the same time. It was first documented in 1183. In 1556 the line died out and the castle passed to Count Ludwig of Stolberg-Königstein, then in 1598 to Count Ludwig of Löwenstein. A gunpowder explosion damaged it in 1619, and in 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, imperial artillery fire destroyed it; it has been a ruin since.

The counts of Wertheim, first named in 1132, kept the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach at their court; his reference to 'min herre der grave von Wertheim' in Book 4 of Parzival supports the belief that he wrote parts of it here between 1200 and 1210. The castle later passed to the counts of Stolberg-Königstein in 1556 and to Ludwig von Löwenstein in 1598.

The site is accessible via hiking trails and offers sweeping views across the valleys and town below from the upper levels. Sturdy footwear is recommended since the ground is uneven in places and stairs connect different levels of the ruins.

The octagonal stair tower was built in 1562 as one of the last major construction projects before the castle's gradual decline. This tower shows that the counts were still investing in new structures even as the castle's importance was fading.