Schmidtburg Castle, Schneppenbach, Germany

Schneppenbach was administratively tightly bound with the Schmidtburg castle, which nowadays stands within the village's municipal limits. The castle, whose beginnings go back at least as far as 929, and possibly as far as 926, is one of the oldest in the Nahe-Hunsrück region and is believed to have been the family seat of the Counts in the Nahegau, the Emichones. Their coheirs and rightful successors, the Waldgraves, owned the castle in the 12th and 13th centuries. Internal Waldgravial family disputes, however, resulted in ownership being transferred about 1330 to Archbishop and Elector of Trier Baldwin of Luxembourg. Under Baldwin, the castle was expanded, and in the time that followed, it became the seat of the Electoral-Trier Amt of Schmidtburg.

The castle was destroyed during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–1697) by French troops in 1688. Today impressive large ruins remain.

User Reviews

ruteto (10 months ago)
Beautyfull trail

Krishnent S Kumar (12 months ago)
Great place to visit in the spring

Vos in t Veld (2 years ago)
Very big ruine, great to walk through.

Kirk Dial (2 years ago)
Super cool castle ruins. Did it with 3 children between 1 and 5. Doable hike.

Julia Erz (4 years ago)
Large ruins that are free to visit with a hike that goes down and back up to reach the castle! Also nice views of the surrounding area!

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Andy Hay

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Argos Theater

The ancient Argos Theater was built in 320 BC. and is located in Argos, Greece against Larissa Hill. Nearby from this site is Agora, Roman Odeon, and the Baths of Argos. The theater is one of the largest architectural developments in Greece and was renovated in ca 120 AD.

The Hellenistic theater at Argos is cut into the hillside of the Larisa, with 90 steps up a steep incline, forming a narrow rectilinear cavea. Among the largest theaters in Greece, it held about 20,000 spectators and is divided by two landings into three horizontal sections. Staircases further divide the cavea into four cunei, corresponding to the tribes of Argos A high wall was erected to prevent unauthorized access into the theatron and may have helped the acoustics, but it is said the sound quality is still very good today.

Around 120 CE, both theaters were renovated in the Roman style.

Schmidtburg Castle

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