Schönburg, Medieval castle in Oberwesel, Germany

Schönburg is a castle complex on a wooded hillside above Oberwesel in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Its grey and brown stone buildings include a round tower with a dark conical roof, a tall square tower, and a taller residential block with several windows. The 25-metre gate tower now holds a museum on castle building, and the Hoher Mantel, a shield wall first mentioned in 1357, bends three times at obtuse angles to cover the attack side.

Construction began in the first half of the 12th century, though whether under the Archbishop of Magdeburg or as an imperial castle is uncertain. In 1149 it appears as a fief of Hermann von Stahleck, who had his rival Otto II of Rheineck murdered there. By the 14th century it was a Ganerbenburg shared among many co-owners, 95 listed in 1340, with three separate living quarters and three bergfrieds. French troops destroyed it in 1689; the German-American T. J. Oakley Rhinelander bought the ruin and rebuilt parts of it between 1885 and 1901.

The castle gave its name to the Schönburger grape, a small part of the 72-hectare Schloss Schönburg vineyard area on the steep slopes of the Middle Rhine, where Riesling, Müller-Thurgau and Kerner are also grown. The restaurant terrace looks upstream toward Kaub and Burg Gutenfels.

The climb from Oberwesel on the west side of the castle hill takes about 30 minutes along steep serpentine paths. A first viewpoint, the Elfenley, looks north down the Rhine to Oberwesel and south upriver to Kaub. Cars can also reach the castle, with parking in front of the Hoher Mantel shield wall.

The castle's name was given to the Schönburger grape variety, grown in the 72-hectare Schloss Schönburg vineyard on the steep slopes of the Mittelrhein. The 25-metre gate tower has housed a museum on castle building, monument conservation and castles at war since April 2011, with a steel viewing platform on its top floor.