Thurant Castle

The ruins of the Thurant Castle (German: Burg Thurant, also Thurandt or Thurand) stand on a wide slate hill spur above the villages of Alken on the Moselle in Germany. The castle is in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the spur castle type. Vine gardens on the sunniest slope. From the mid-13th century the archbishops of Cologne and Trier were joint owners and had their respective property managed by burgraves. As a result, each half of the castle had its own bergfried, living/domestic buildings and entrance. From the early 16th century the double castle gradually fell into disrepair and was made a complete ruin during the destruction wrought by the War of the Palatine Succession. Robert Allmers (1872–1951) from Varel, co-founder of the Hansa Automobil company and, from 1914, director of Bremen's Hansa Lloyd factories, bought the site in 1911 and had part of it rebuilt. The castle is in private hands, but may be visited from March to mid-November for a fee. Under to the Heritage Monument Conservation Act of the state, the whole site is a protected monument so is incorporated into the state monument list. It is a protected cultural object under the Hague Convention, bearing its blue and white signs.