Burg Thurant, Medieval castle in Alken, Germany

Thurant Castle is a ruin on a slate spur above Alken, with two keeps, the Trier Tower and Cologne Tower, each on its own half. A wooden bridge crosses the neck moat to a gatehouse, opening onto a courtyard redesigned as a rock garden. The Trier Tower, 20 metres high with three-metre-thick walls, now holds a water reservoir and is closed to visitors.

Count Palatine Henry I built the castle between 1198 and 1206 to enforce Emperor Otto IV's authority over the Moselle region. In 1248, the complex was formally divided, with each section coming under separate control by the archdioceses of Cologne and Trier.

The name Thurant recalls Toron Castle near Tyre in Lebanon, which Count Palatine Henry I besieged in vain during the Third Crusade and after which he named this hilltop site. From 1248 a wall divided the complex into a Cologne half and a Trier half, each with its own burgrave, entrance and keep, still called the Cologne Tower and Trier Tower. The lords of Wiltberg, vassals from 1495, quarried the decaying castle to build their Wiltburg in Alken.

The castle is reached via a wooden bridge over the neck moat on its southern side, leading to a gatehouse and inner courtyard. The 20-metre Trier Tower, with walls three metres thick at its base, serves as a water reservoir and cannot be entered. The site is private property open to visitors from March to mid-November.

The Trier Tower, 20 metres high with walls three metres thick at its base, now serves as a water reservoir and cannot be entered. A wooden bridge crosses the neck moat on the south side to reach the gatehouse, which was built only during the early 20th-century reconstruction.