Burg Alpen, Former castle site in Alpen, Germany

Burg Alpen was a motte-and-bailey castle with defensive water moats and two outer fortified compounds in North Rhine-Westphalia. The castle mound remains intersect with Burgstrasse today, though the original stone and timber were recycled for road construction in the early 1800s.

Burg Alpen was first mentioned in a document around 1200, when it belonged to Heinrich von Alpen. Through pledges it later passed to the family of Neuenahr. The castle remained inhabited into the 18th century, but an earthquake in 1758 made it uninhabitable, and the buildings gradually decayed. In 1809 the motte was levelled and its material used to build the Burgstrasse under French occupation.

The street name Burgstrasse and the village name Alpen both recall the vanished castle: the settlement grew around the seat of the lords of Alpen, later held by the Neuenahr family through pledges. Amalia von Neuenahr-Alpen, Countess of Limburg, was born at the castle in 1539, a link between the site and the regional nobility.

The site lies along Burgstrasse in Alpen, where the road cut through the western part of the former motte mound in 1809. Only the flattened Burgstall remains, with no walls or rebuilt structures, so the traces are best read as terrain rather than architecture.

Amalia von Neuenahr-Alpen, Countess of Limburg, was born at the castle in 1539, the daughter of Gumprecht II von Neuenahr-Alpen. The site had passed to the Neuenahr family through pledges after belonging to Heinrich von Alpen.