Burg Dattenberg, Medieval castle ruins in Dattenberg, Germany

Burg Dattenberg is a partly preserved hilltop castle on the edge of Dattenberg in Rhineland-Palatinate, not on the Lahn. Its circular main castle has a rectangular perimeter wall and a flanking tower at the north corner. The central bergfried survives as an 11-metre-high stump, 8.5 metres in diameter, beside a neck ditch cut into slate. The outer bailey was built over in modern times.

Built around 1220 by the lower nobility of Dattenberg as their seat, the castle was sold around 1320 by Wilhelm de Dadenberg to the Archbishopric of Cologne, which granted it in 1331 as a fief to the knight Rollmann von Sinzig. By 1624 it was already described as decayed. In 1837 the Cologne notary Josef Stoppenbach built a two-storey rubble-stone country house, and in 1890 the Berlin master builder Adolf Fuchs converted it into a villa-like mansion.

The site served as a gathering place for youth groups and school classes over many decades, becoming part of local community life. This use shaped how people in the area understood the place beyond its medieval origins.

The residential tower ruin can only be viewed from the outside; the grounds lie at the edge of Dattenberg on Burgstraße. The site is in private ownership since 2003, so the interior buildings are not open to visitors. The neck ditch cut into the slate rock is visible along the approach.

The central bergfried survives only as an 11-metre stump, 8.5 metres across, and can be viewed only from outside. A neck ditch was cut into the slate bedrock beside it. The former outer bailey (Vorburg) was built over in modern times, so the tower ruin is the most visible part of the fortification.