Morscheider Grenzpfad

Sommerau Castle Ruins from the 13th Century Far from through traffic, the Sommerau castle ruins lie exceptionally picturesque in the Ruwer valley. You can reach it either via Gutweiler or the Gusterath valley.

Sommerau Castle was built on a rock spur, which was surrounded on three sides by the Ruwer river. This approximately 45 m long rock tongue was pierced at its narrowest point to use the Ruwer's gradient to drive a mill. This created a loop hill and dried out the former valley loop. In the 13th century, the castle was built by the Trier knightly family 'von der Brücke', whose main seat was in the Barbara Thermal Baths. Walram, a Trier alderman from the von der Brücke family, enfeoffed Sommerau Castle to the Archbishop of Trier in 1303. Later, as an Electoral Trier fief, the castle was transferred to the Luxembourgish knightly family 'von der Fels'. By the beginning of the 19th century at the latest, the castle had fallen into ruin. In 1853, the state bought the ruins from four Trier citizens to prevent them being used further as a quarry. In 1902, it was then sold back to a private individual with a land registry registered obligation for maintenance and inseparability from the associated lands. The complex measures 40 by 10 m. To the west, the remains of the former palas or residential building rise up to 10 m high, and to the east, the square bergfried about 16 m high, which served as a residential tower with its four floors. A door at about 3 m height apparently led to a rising wooden defensive walkway. To the south on the fourth upper floor there is a large rectangular door with an oriel toilet bay, whose masonry is placed on consoles of red sandstone. The residential building shows, recognizable from the inside, three full floors and half a fourth with the protruding remnant of a chimney that begins on the second floor. Of the enclosing wall that carried the walkway, the rising masonry is only noticeable in remnants. The other transverse walls lie in the ground, the layout is only ascertainable through excavations. Opening hours: freely accessible