Pyrmont Castle (German: Burg Pyrmont) stands west of Münstermaifeld near Roes and Pillig on a slate rock outcrop above a waterfall on the Elzbach in the southern Eifel mountains in Germany. It is in the municipality of Roes in the district of Cochem-Zell.

The irregular, rectangular castle was built in the typical style of the Staufer period. The 24.5-metre-high round, bergfried is of the donjon type and was the first of its kind in the entire Middle Rhine region. It has two vaults, several fireplaces and can be climbed as an observation tower. It also has a conical roof. In its shadows is a 49-metre-deep castle well (Sodbrunnen).

A 15th-century Zwinger with round towers guards the inner bailey. A deep neck ditch separates the inner bailey and Zwinger from the outer bailey, which has been rebuilt as part of the restoration.

The Zwinger was once occupied by residential and domestic buildings, of which only the large storage cellar (Fuderkeller) has survived. Under the modern administrative building is the old north gate, which was the main entrance until the castle was expanded after the 15th century.

The inner bailey, built on the rocks high above the Zwinger, consists of the formerly three-storeyed palas, the attached cookhouse and the bergfried. When the castle was remodelled in the baroque style from 1712, the palas and cookhouse were given roofs that reached to the top of the bergfried. The facades were standardised in the baroque style with the insertion of new windows. The palas and cookhouse have only been restored with two storeys and a flat roof. The remains of the third storey recall that the castle was a ruin for a long time.

The ground floor of the palas has an entrance hall, the great hall (Rittersaal) and smaller rooms; the remains of the castle chapel adjoin it. On the ground floor of the cookhouse, a kitchen has been built to the same dimensions as the historical one.

The 18th-century castle garden, which was clearly never finished, lies below the castle, supported by dry stone walls and containing a fish pond. On the south and west hillside are traces of the vineyards which were cultivated until the 18th century.

Wikipedia

Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate