A fortress, a palace, a ruin—Hardenburg Castle near Bad Dürkheim is all of this and has had an eventful history. And it tells not only of counts and kings, but also of much smaller creatures. Where once knights lived in the Middle Ages is now the home of rare bats.
They hide and are barely visible. Only those who look closely will discover the traces left by them. Like in the former bakery of the castle. The room is large, almost five metres high—and pitch black. Thomas Hofmann shines a torch on a spot in the middle of the room. The light falls on black, elongated crumbs. “Bat droppings,” explains the cultural educator, who guides guests through Hardenburg Castle for the Rhineland-Palatinate General Directorate for Cultural Heritage (GDKE). Then he shines the light on the stone ceiling. You can make out a hole to the right of the beam of light. “This used to be an air shaft,” says Thomas. He doesn’t want to shine the light directly into it. “We don’t want to wake anyone up.”
Wall niches, winding corridors, old air shafts. This is where bats feel right at home.
This is where the new residents of the more than 800-year-old Hardenburg Castle like to sleep away the days. The bats feel particularly comfortable in air shafts and niches in the walls and between wooden beams. And when the cold season approaches, they gather in the vaulted cellar. “Over 100 animals hibernate in the castle in good years,” says biologist Guido Pfalzer from the Rhineland-Palatinate Bat Conservation Working Group. The bat colony includes the greater mouse-eared bat, the largest native bat, but also rare species such as the parti-coloured bat, the grey long-eared bat, or the barbastelle, which was considered extinct in the Palatinate. “Until we discovered a specimen of the species at Hardenburg Castle in 1995.” As a consequence, Hardenburg Castle was designated “a unique site in the Palatinate with outstanding significance for bat conservation” by the Rhineland-Palatinate NABU nature conservation association in 2021. Since then, a plaque in the entrance area of the castle has announced to visitors: Fledermäuse willkommen! (bats welcome).
An endangered and very rare winter visitor to Hardenburg Castle: a barbastelle bat (photo: Guido Pfalzer).
Thomas is not quite sure which species of bat Batty belongs to. He strokes the stuffed animal and pulls it over his hand. “She’s quite big, so she’s probably a greater mouse-eared bat.” Batty accompanies Thomas when he guides groups of children and school classes through the castle. “The animal is 800 years old, so it knows the history of the castle from the very beginning.”
Hardenburg Castle is located on a mountain promontory above the Isenachtal valley (photo: Rhineland-Palatinate GDKE / Elisa Fischer).
A hiking trail leads up to the castle…
… and even more trails lead the way around it.
Another trail leads to nearby Limburg Monastery…
… for which the Counts of Leiningen were appointed as protectors.
Wall niches, winding corridors, old air shafts...
...Thomas knows every corner and niche in the castle.
• Especially the ones where bats like to sleep.
The story begins with the appointment of the Counts of Leiningen as protectors of Limburg Monastery at the beginning of the 13th century. As a base for their knights, the dynasty built the fortress on a mountain promontory above the Isenachtal valley, within a sight of the monastery and on its grounds. “However, without asking the monks first,” says Thomas. That was not a good start for the relationship between the counts and the inhabitants of the nearby monastery, who repeatedly came into conflict with each other throughout history. Thomas tells stories of carp being stolen from the fish pond and of a stone figure sticking its tongue out towards the monastery.
I can describe history much more vividly and lively here than I could in the classroom
Thomas Hofmann
The Leiningen family began to expand the fortress into a palace at the end of the 15th century. Today, one can only imagine how magnificent the building once was. A pleasure garden was laid out, modelled on Heidelberg Castle. Spacious residential wings and magnificent halls were built. “According to estimates, up to 150 people lived permanently in Hardenburg Castle during the Renaissance,” Thomas explains. They were protected by the western ramparts with their seven-metre-thick walls, which couldn’t even be destroyed completely by the explosives of the French revolutionary troops from 1794. The Counts of Leiningen fled across the Rhine from the advancing French and never got their castle back, which then fell into ruin.
Thomas Hofmann uses a model to illustrate what Hardenburg Castle looked like in its heyday.
In the centuries that followed, nature reclaimed the building piece by piece. Rare mosses and lichens started to grow on the stones. And a researcher discovered as early as 1862 that the ruined castle was a valuable bat roost. Today, the castle belongs to the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which reopened Hardenburg Castle to visitors and extensively renovated the ruin until 2012—always taking care of the bats. “Not all the joints in the masonry were filled in, and certain areas, such as the cellar vault, remain closed to visitors—as bat retreats.”
Children can follow in the footsteps of the bats taking part in a quiz about the ruins.
The castle has held many secrets over the centuries. Secrets that are almost palpable in the dark shafts and branching corridors of the ruins. Where did the staircase leading down into the western bulwark actually lead, because it ends so abruptly? And who languished in the dungeon of the prison tower? This is only accessible to participants in a guided tour, who have to sneak through a narrow, dark passageway to get there. “This part is always a highlight for children,” says Thomas.
Dark corridors, mysterious staircases: the castle has a lot to offer children.
The teacher has been responsible for Hardenburg Castle as a cultural educator since 2020. Before that, he taught German and History at a secondary school in Speyer. Thomas has been interested in history and historical sites since childhood. “When the position was advertised in 2020, I applied immediately,” and he has never regretted the move from school to the ruins. “I have completely different opportunities to impart knowledge here. I can describe history much more vividly and lively here than I could in the classroom in front of a blackboard,” he says. These stories stay in the memory much longer. “I often see children who were here with their class and then later explain to their parents what used to happen here.”
Thomas loves to elicit stories from the ruins. And pass them on to children.
Hofmann is constantly on the lookout for new ideas to bring history to life and attract even more visitors to Hardenburg Castle. Children can immerse themselves in the Middle Ages on guided tours dressed in knight’s armour and use a quill and ink to write a document or make a leather purse in workshops. For adults, Anja Kleinhans from Freinsheim offers guided tours in which she, in her guise as Countess Maria Elisabeth von Leiningen, guides visitors through the late Renaissance period. With her “Theatre of Love”, she also brings an open-air theatre festival series to Hardenburg Castle every summer. In 2023, Thomas and the GDKE team received the cultural education award from the Friends of Prussian Palaces and Gardens association for the inclusive discovery game Hidden Places, Dem Geheimnis der Ruine auf der Spur (on the trail of the mystery of the ruins), in which deaf and hearing people can explore the ruins together and solve puzzles.
A tactile model of the ruins makes their dimensions clear even to blind people.
Guido Pfalzer and his wife Claudia Weber also offer regular events in the summer where guests can get up close to the flying inhabitants of the ruins. Special devices make the animals’ ultrasonic sounds audible, filling the castle courtyard with chirping and whistling. But even in winter can visitors get close to the bats—digitally, that is. Using the Actionbound app, Pips the pipistrelle bat invites young and old alike on a tour of Hardenburg Castle, where they can learn a lot about the animals via their smartphones.
What do bat calls sound like? Visitors can find out using an app.
This includes the fact that the animals are strictly protected, some species already being extinct. “This is because there are fewer and fewer suitable habitats for the animals.” And this makes places like Hardenburg Castle all the more important. As are people like Guido and Thomas, who bring biology and history as well as nature conservation and monument preservation together. And in doing so, they tell all kinds of exciting stories about knights and bats.
From the beginning of February to 14 March: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last admission at 4 p.m.) From 15 March to 31 October: Thursdays to Sundays and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (last admission at 5 p.m.) In November: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last admission at
Hardenburg Castle is closed in December and January.
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