Sayn Castle

Sayn was the 12th-century family castle of the counts of Sayn and Sayn-Wittgenstein, set above the village of Sayn on the Rhine between Koblenz and Neuwied. Its southern, western and northern flanks drop steeply into the valley, while the flat ridge on the eastern approach was cut by a deep, wide artificial neck ditch backed by a mighty shield wall with a wall-walk.

A roughly twenty-metre bergfried of the late 12th century, its walls 2.4 metres thick at the middle, still dominates the ruin. Excavations have shown the palas originally stood on the south side of the smaller eastern courtyard before being moved to the western spur, where a 25-metre-deep well and an octagonal staircase tower remain, and have uncovered a castle chapel with three apses and a well-preserved, ornately decorated floor of about 1200.

In front of the southern walls lies a zwinger ninety metres long, guarded by a small defensive tower to the east and a barbican to the west. Below stand two former castellan residences — the 15th-century Mittlere Burghaus, joined to the inner ward by a wall, and the 14th-century seat of the lords of Stein from Nassau. Excavation has also reopened the original access track through the gate zwinger.