The castle
The castle plant which beginnings are unknown is relatively small and belongs today to the best preserved moated castles of the Palatinate. Probably built in 1181 and as feud of the monastery Prüm it belonged the gents of Bolanden. The first well-known men at the castle were Meffried of Reipoltskirchen (at 1196) and Jakob Boos to Reipoltskirchen (1209). As inheritance of the masters von Hohenfels, the in 1276 first time mentioned castle, it became 1297 seat of the branch line founded by Heinrich of Hohenfels, gent of Reipoltskirchen.
Because the castle at the "Donnersberg" was lost, Reipoltskirchen became temporary head office of the house Hohenfels in 1351. The younger line took over the possession and the coat of arms of the older line in 1415 after they were extincted. With the death of Johann of Hohenfels the sex of the gents of Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchen ended in 1602, which had continuously increase their possession by purchase, exchange and marriage. After a transition period the empire was splitted 1628 under the nephews of the mother from "Johann von Hohenfels", "Johann Casimir" and "Steino", counts of Löwenhaupt. By the daughter of Steino, one half came to the count of Manderscheid, who sold it 1730 to the Mannheimer realm, count "Franz Hillesheim".
The other half, still owned by the family of Löwenhaupt (a quarter from 1722 to 1754 in the possession of the count of Hillesheim) is sold 1763 to the empire, count "Philipp Andreas's of Ellrodt". 1770 to 1773 temporarily in the possession of the duchy Palatinate-Zweibrücken, the widow of the count of Ellrodt sold her half to princess Karoline of Isenburg 1777, the oldest daughter of the cure prince of the Palantinate.
Since the 18. Century the continuance of the reign is composed of 11,5 villages. Beside Reipoltskirchen as office (with exception of the Ingweiler- and Ausbacherhofes) the villages Nußbach, Rathskirchen, Reichsthal, Hefersweiler, Relsberg, Morbach belonged to it and furthermore as own unit the villages Finkenbach, Gersweiler, Schönborn and Dörnbach; and also the half of Rudolphskirchen. The two whole villages Seelen and Berzweiler as well as the two halfs of Rudolphskirchen and Niederkirchen, are not included.
The build of the original rectangular plant of the castle took advantage of an existing rocky spur, which is orbited in a far bend by the brook "Odenbach". As last remainder of the old castle, the neck ditch in the west as well as the two lower floors of the military tower, were preserved. How far this first castle plant were expand to east, is uncertain. Probably in 15. century it was extended round by building and fill up a circular wall. On the southeast corner a cannon bastion was built, which however like the largest part of the circular wall was renewed in the sixties;
Today the core castle lies on a stretched, semicircular plateau, which is surrounded by its strong up to 6m high wall. Behind a broad ditch, which originally a drawbridge spanned, the trapezoidal outer ward lies before the straight south side, which is like the core castle separated from the rising slope in the west by the neck ditch.
Over a far strained arch bridge to the outer ward and a further twin arches bridge to the core castle you arrive to the in all directions free standing plant The core castle was secured on the eastside side by an artificial barrier and ditch. The so secured upper castle carries as the oldest building the originally freestanding, approximately 17m high military tower, with three barrel-vaulted floors, at which the lower one is again subdivided by an intermediate ceiling. With a side length of 8m the tower has a wall thickness of 2.50m at the foot and 2m at the capstone. The two basements are cased with large ashlars. The old entrance to the yard in the first upper floor is still preserved. A platform lay in front of the the old entrance. The feature of the two lower floors suggests that they could have developed around the year 1200. The second upper floor instead, originates from the time around 1500 based on its design. Here in central arrangement also preserved the corbel of four machicolation, whose previous structur was probably accessible from a further upper floor.
Entrances were broken into the highest tower floor, when an authority building with two floors was established in the 16. Century . As last remain of the authority building the in front of the towers south side situated vault basement is kept, with one in Renaissance forms decorated round arched gate. The size of the former authority building can be read off from its long Basement, which as thick bulge locks upward the military wall. In addition a highly up-bricked draw well in the yard is kept from the arrangement of the castle. When the castle was auctioneered 1808 as French national property, except the tower and the two-story authority building only the small forestry house was on the upper castle and on the fore-castle the 1884 diminished tenth barn including the stables.