A refuge castle stood here in the late Carolingian or Ottonian period, and the Kästenburg was probably built in the first half of the 11th century. The Bishopric of Speyer owned the estate from about 1090 to the end of the 18th century. Peasants looted it in 1525, Albrecht Alcibiades burned it in 1552, and French soldiers destroyed it in September 1688. Bavaria began a neo-Gothic rebuild in 1844 to plans by August von Voit. The article gives no materials. The hill rises 1,066 feet (325 m).
In 1832 it hosted the Hambacher Fest, a democracy-movement event, and the article calls the castle a national memorial. US President Ronald Reagan spoke there in May 1985.
Since 2002 the owners are the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and three regional bodies. It is a museum and convention center with about 200,000 visitors a year.
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