Burg Linz

Burg Linz is a late-medieval town castle in Linz am Rhein, built in 1364 shortly after the town received its municipal charter — commissioned by the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne as both a defensive fortification and a Rhine toll station to control his territories on the river's right bank. As one of the few surviving electoral town castles on the Middle Rhine, it offers a direct window into the territorial ambitions of the medieval Archbishopric of Cologne, which levied substantial tolls on Rhine river traffic. The castle's sturdy keep rises above Linz's well-preserved medieval old town, with views stretching across the Rhine. Protected today as a cultural monument (Kulturdenkmal) in Rhineland-Palatinate, it remains a defining feature of the townscape that earned Linz the nickname "the colorful town on the Rhine."