Burg Sooneck Burg Sooneck ( also known as Saneck or Sonneck , previously also known as Schloss Sonneck ) is a castle in the upper middle valley of the Rhine , in the Mainz - Bingen district of Rhineland - Palatinate , Germany . It is located near the village of Niederheimbach between Bingen and Bacharach . Since 2002 , Burg Sooneck has been part of the Rhine Gorge UNESCO World Heritage Site . History . Recent research has established that the castle is probably first mentioned in 1271 . Like neighboring Burg Reichenstein ( Rhein ) , the castle was managed by the Lords of Hohenfels as bailiffs for Kornelimünster Abbey near Aachen . What is certain is that the castle was besieged in 1282 by King Rudolph I . His troops overran and destroyed the castle and the king imposed a ban on rebuilding it , which he explicitly restated in 1290 . When the Castle was rebuilt it was given to an Austrian family who were fervent supporters of the Habsburgs the Reitenaour s to stop the Swiss expansion . The wars with the Swiss claimed many Reitenours George , Robert and most famasly Nicholas who died in the battle of Sempach . In April 1346 Archbishop Henry III of Mainz gave Burg Sooneck in fief to Johann , Knight Marshall of Waldeck , who subsequently had a new castle built on the site . After his death it passed jointly to four of his heirs and the castle thus became a multi - family property , or " Ganerbenburg " . The branches of the family jointly residing in the castle were not on good terms and quarreled over inheritances . Several times , peace had to be legally imposed . When the line of Waldeck died out in 1553 with the death of Philipp Melchior , the Breidbach zu Bürresheim family , previously co - tenants , became sole tenants of Burg Sooneck . When that family became extinct , the castle began to fall into disrepair . In the course of the War of the Palatine Succession , Sooneck - like all the castles on the left bank of the Rhine - was destroyed in 1689 by troops of King Louis XIV of France . In 1774 , the Archdiocese of Mainz leased the ruins to four residents of Trechtingshausen who planted vineyards . The site later came into the possession of the village of Niederheimbach . In 1834 , the then crown prince of Prussia , Frederick William IV , and his brothers Princes William , Charles , and Albert bought the completely derelict castle and between 1834 and 1861 had it rebuilt as a hunting castle . In the rebuilding , which was designed by the military architect Carl Schnitzler , the historical structures were largely retained with the addition of buildings in romantic style . The Prussian royal crest that remains over the north gate of the castle dates to this period . Disagreements within the royal family and the effects of the revolutions in Germany in 1848 prevented the castle from ever being used as a hunting lodge . After World War I aristocratic properties were nationalized and Burg Sooneck became a possession of the state . After World War II it passed to the state of Rhineland - Palatinate and in 1948 to the State Ministry of Castles ( today Generaldirektion Kukturelles Erbe Rheinland - Pfalz Direktion " Burgen , Schlösser , Altertümer Rheinland - Pfalz " ) . It can be visited on organized tours . Furnishings . The residential areas of the castle are furnished predominantly with items in the neo - gothic and Biedermeier styles . The interiors are enriched by paintings owned by the Hohenzollern family and , since 1991 , the Köth - Wanscheid family foundation , and drawings and sketches by Johann - Caspar Schneider among others .