{{Short description|Castle in Bingen am Rhein, Germany}} thumb|Klopp Castle '''Klopp Castle''' ({{langx|de|'''Burg Klopp'''}}) is a castle in the town of Bingen am Rhein in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In the nineteenth century, the bergfried (similar to a keep) from the original medieval fortified castle was restored and a new building added which houses the town's administration.

==History== The castle stands on a hill above the town with a wide-ranging view, which may have been the site of a Roman fortification built by Nero Claudius Drusus at ''Bingium'' around 10 CE.<ref name=Taylor291>Robert R. Taylor, ''The Castles of the Rhine: Recreating the Middle Ages in Modern Germany'', Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1998, {{ISBN|978-0-88920-268-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZ5fD3hKgcC&q=The+Romans+established+a+castle+here&pg=PA292 p. 291].</ref><ref name=Gibbon>Monk Gibbon, ''The Rhine and its Castles'', London: Putnam, 1957, OCLC 1327080, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t3QTAQAAMAAJ&q=Klopp p. 140].</ref> ''Drusenburg'' or ''Drususburg'' was an early name for the castle.<ref name=Bauzeitung>''Deutsche Bauzeitung'' 66, 13 August 1881, vol. 15 [https://books.google.com/books?id=_dlLAAAAYAAJ&dq=Burg+Klopp+Drusenburg&pg=PA371 p. 371] {{in lang|de}}</ref> The hill is one of three locations where local legend says that Emperor Henry IV was imprisoned by his son in 1105 or 1106, this being the first surviving mention of a castle there.<ref>Taylor, pp. 291, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZ5fD3hKgcC&q=+also+share+this+mythical+distinction%21&pg=PA292 293].</ref><ref>According to Gibbon, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t3QTAQAAMAAJ&q=Klopp+in+Bingen+the+final+tragic+scene pp. 139&ndash;40], they met and spent the night together at the castle but the imprisonment was elsewhere.</ref><ref name=Werwill>Michael Fuhr, ''Wer will des Stromes Hüter sein? 40 Burgen und Schlösser am Mittelrhein: ein Führer'', Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Rheinland-Pfalz, Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer Rheinland-Pfalz, Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2002, {{ISBN|978-3-7954-1460-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5oEjAQAAIAAJ&q=Burg+Klopp+1105+erstmals+urkundlich+belegt+1282+als+%E2%80%9EBurg+Klopp%22+Sitz+von+Burgmannen+des+Mainzer+Erzbischofs+1301+...+kurz+darauf+Wiederaufbau+seit+1483+unter+Verwaltung+des+Mainzer+Domkapitels+1653+Wiederaufbau+nach+Zerst%C3%B6rung+im p. 18] {{in lang|de}}</ref> [[File:Bingen (Merian).jpg|thumb|View of Bingen and Klopp Castle by Matthäus Merian, 1646]] The last medieval castle on the site was built in the 13th century: possibly around 1281,<ref name=Taylor291/> possibly between 1240, when ''Kloppberg'' (Klopp Hill) is mentioned as the residence of a churchman, and 1277, the first mention of ''Burg Clopp''. Together with Ehrenfels Castle on the opposite side of the Rhine and later the Mouse Tower, it enabled the Archbishopric of Mainz to exact tolls on river trade. In 1438 the archbishop sold the town and the castle to the cathedral chapter and the townspeople effectively controlled it. The castle was already decaying in the 16th century<ref>Taylor, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZ5fD3hKgcC&q=The+physical+decay+of+the+increasingly+unused+castles&pg=PA292 p. 12].</ref> and was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, but was rebuilt in 1653.<ref name=Werwill/> The French destroyed it again in 1689 in the War of the Palatine Succession, and in the final phase of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, the Mainz forces themselves blew up what was left to prevent its use by the enemy.<ref>Matthias Schmandt, "Die Besucherbücher der Burg Klopp in Bingen. Eine Quelle zur Geschichte der Rheinreise im 19. Jahrhundert. Werkstattbericht," in Hanna Delf von Wolzogen, ed., ''Geschichte und Geschichten aus Mark Brandenburg: Fontanes Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg im Kontext der europäischen Reiseliteratur. Internationales Symposium des Theodor-Fontane-Archivs in Zusammenarbeit mit der Theodor-Fontane-Gesellschaft vom 18. - 22. September 2002 in Potsdam'', Fontaneana 1, Würzburg: Köningshausen & Neumann, 2003, {{ISBN|978-3-8260-2634-8}}, pp. 191&ndash;212, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QYrPKCfi2KYC&q=1713+sogar+noch+weitere+Sprengungen+durchf%C3%BChren%2C+damit+die+Burg+im+Falle+erneuter+Besetzung&pg=PA192 pp. 192&ndash;93] {{in lang|de}}</ref> Early 19th-century paintings show ruined walls, one connecting the castle to the town, but the castle itself levelled.<ref name=Taylor293>Taylor, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZ5fD3hKgcC&q=and+the+remaining+parts+blown+up+by+the+forces+of+Mainz+in+1711&pg=PA292 p. 293].</ref>

The state of Hesse acquired the ruin in 1815 and sold it to Hermann Faber, a lawyer. It was later owned by a Berliner called Rosenthal,<ref>''Die Rheinlande von der Schweizer bis zur holländischen Grenze: Handbuch für Reisende'', 27th ed. Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1895, [https://books.google.com/books?id=C2IWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Burg+Klopp+Rosenthal+Berlin&pg=PA248 p. 248] {{in lang|de}}</ref> who renovated the well. Both charged tourists to climb the gate tower as a viewing platform;<ref name=Taylor293/> Faber built a stairway up the outside of the walls and a viewing room at the top which he furnished with books of poetry, a comfortable sofa and a fully equipped writing desk, and laid out the grounds as a garden with romantic paths through the grapevines, trees and flowers. He also installed an aeolian harp.<ref>Schmandt, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QYrPKCfi2KYC&q=Hermann+Faber+lie%C3%9F+das+Burggel%C3%A4nde+gro%C3%9Fz%C3%BCgig&pg=PA192 p. 193]; but he reports it to have been the bergfried rather than the gate tower.</ref> The castle was one of the major sights of the Romantic Rhine. J.M.W. Turner sketched a view of it from the River Nahe in 1844.<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999998&workid=62367&searchid=9534 "Bingen and Burg Klopp from the Nahe"], Tate Gallery</ref> By the end of the 19th century, some 75,000 entries had been made in the visitors' book.<ref>Schmandt, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QYrPKCfi2KYC&q=75.000+Reisende+haben+sich+darin+verewigt&pg=PA192 p. 194].</ref> thumb|The rebuilt bergfried In 1853 the gatehouse, the bridge across the moat and the fortifications were rebuilt for Ludwig Maria Cron. The bergfried was rebuilt as a crenellated tower 26&nbsp;metres high, with four corner turrets.<ref name=Taylor293/> In 1875&ndash;79, a new Gothic building was built on the site. The architect for both was the mayor, Eberhard Soherr.<ref name=Taylor293/><ref name=Bauzeitung/><ref>Helmut Mathy, ''Bingen: Geschichte einer Stadt am Mittelrhein. Vom frühen Mittelalter bis zum 19. Jahrhundert'', Binger Stadtgeschichte 1, Stadt Bingen, 1989, repr. Mainz: Zabern, 2003, {{ISBN|978-3-920615-10-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=P3HjAAAAMAAJ&q=Eberhard+Soherr p. 203] {{in lang|de}}</ref> The base of the bergfried, the moat and parts of the southern curtain wall and its chemin de ronde are the only remnants of the medieval castle.

==Current use== The rebuilt bergfried formerly housed the town's local history museum,<ref name=Taylor291/><ref name=Gibbon/> which moved in 1998 to a former power station on the waterfront.<ref name=Bingen>[http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/index.php?id=393 Bingen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719015701/http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/index.php?id=393 |date=2011-07-19 }}, Welterbe Oberes Mittelrheintal, retrieved 30 March 2011 {{in lang|de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bingen.de/en/4/historisches_museum.html |title=Historisches Museum am Strom |access-date=2011-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230134550/http://www.bingen.de/en/4/historisches_museum.html |archive-date=2010-12-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The larger Gothic building has been the seat of government and mayoral residence since 1897.<ref name=Gibbon/><ref name=Taylor293/><ref name=Bingen/> There is also a gourmet restaurant.<ref>Andrea Schulte-Peevers, ''Germany'', 5th ed. Footscray, Victoria: Lonely Planet, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-74059-988-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5t5mZE_s5YC&dq=%22One+ofBingen%27s+most+elegant+restaurants%22&pg=PA494 p. 494].</ref>

==Events== * Rhein in Flammen: On the first Saturday in July, ships travel from Trechtingshausen to Rüdesheim am Rhein to view fireworks at Burg Reichenstein, Burg Rheinstein, Assmannshausen, the Mouse Tower, Ehrenfels Castle, Klopp Castle and the Brömserburg.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * J.H.A. Hockenbeck, ''Geschichte des Schlosses Klopp bei Bingen: nach vorhandenen Nachrichten und angestellten Untersuchungen zugestellt''. Bingen: Jung, 1882. OCLC 253436863 {{in lang|de}} * Matthias Schmandt, "Die Geschichte der Burg Klopp in Bingen". ''Heimatjahrbuch des Landkreises Bingen'' 2004 {{in lang|de}} * Gerd Rupprecht. Ed. Alexander Heising. ''Vom Faustkeil zum Frankenschwert. Bingen - Geschichte einer Stadt am Mittelrhein''. Binger Stadtgeschichte 2. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2003. {{ISBN|978-3-8053-3257-6}} {{in lang|de}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Burg Klopp|Klopp Castle}} * [http://www.ms-visucom.de/cgi-bin/ebidat.pl?id=181 Burg Klopp] at the European Castle Database (EBIDAT) {{in lang|de}} * [http://www.restaurant-burg-klopp.de/ Restaurant Burg Klopp] {{clear}}

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Bodmer Bingen Burg Klopp.jpg|Ruins of Klopp Castle above Bingen, by Rudolf Bodmer, ''circa'' 1830 File:BurgKlopp1900.jpg|Klopp Castle at the turn of the 20th century File:Burg Klopp.jpg|View of the castle from the River Nahe File:Bingen 2009-08-06 04.jpg|Castle gatehouse </gallery>

{{Coord|49|57|58.8|N|7|53|47.7|E|region:DE-RP_type:landmark|display=title}}

{{Castles in Germany - The Middle Rhine Valley}} {{Authority control}}

Category:13th-century fortifications Category:Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Category:Naheland Category:Rhine Gorge Category:Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor