Richard the Lionheart Castle

Richard the Lionheart Castle Review

After taking in the Stiftskirche, head up the hill, climbing 500 feet above the town, to the ruins of the famous Richard the Lionheart Castle—known locally as Ruine Dürnstein—where Leopold V held Richard the Lionheart of England, captured on his way back home from the Crusades. Leopold had been insulted, so the story goes, by Richard while they were in the Holy Land and when the English nobleman was shipwrecked and had to head back home through Austria, word got out—even though Richard was disguised as a peasant—and Leopold pounced. In the tower of this castle, the Lionheart was imprisoned (1192-93) until he was located by Blondel, the faithful Minnesänger (troubadour). It's said that Blondel was able to locate his imprisoned king when he heard his master's voice completing the verse of a song Blondel was singing aloud—a bit recycled in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (and the Robert Taylor MGM film). Leopold turned his prisoner over to the emperor, Henry VI, who held him for months longer until ransom was paid by Richard's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. The rather steep 30-minute climb to the ruins will earn you a breathtaking view up and down the Danube Valley and over the hills to the south.