Burg Vilzelt, Medieval castle in Unkel, Germany

Burg Vilzelt is a small former moated castle in the Heister district of Unkel, standing at about 55 m above sea level. It is a plain house with a hipped roof of natural Unkel quarry stone, reached from Heister's centre over a bridge crossing a former Rhine arm dry since the 6th century and the right-bank railway line.

Burg Vilzelt was first recorded in 1290, when Arnold zu Unkel transferred it to the Teutonic Order. It later belonged to the archbishopric of Cologne, whose cathedral chapter installed a bailiff there; the first bailiffs came from the von Oetgenbach and von dem Werde(r) families. On 20 May 1449 Adam von Oetgenbach and his wife Maria sold it to Wilhelm von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, who was subsequently enfeoffed with it by Electoral Cologne. The Nesselrode family held it until 1953.

Above the door is the coat of arms of Hesso Leopold Heinrich Prince of Leiningen (1903–1967) and his wife Marie-Louise Agathe Countess of Nesselrode-Ehreshoven (born 1905). The name Vilzelt probably derives from Felshalde, the rock slope of the Heisterer Ley behind the castle. The building is privately used today.

The castle is in private ownership and not open to visitors. You can view the exterior from nearby public areas while walking around Unkel.

The sculptor Walter Howard spent his childhood at Burg Vilzelt and planned to open a private music school in the "rather coarse, square block". The building stayed in Nesselrode hands until 1953, when Countess Marie Luise Agathe, who had married Hesso Prince zu Leiningen in 1933, sold it to Baron Markwart von Sobeck-Werder.