On the trail of the knights.

Once you have climbed the romantic Dürnstein castle ruins (accessible all year round), you will be rewarded with a fabulous view of the Danube valley and the green Wachau.

The castle was built between 1140-1145. The English King Richard the Lionheart tore up the Austrian flag on the return journey of his crusade and refused to share the spoils of war with Leopold V. Leopold V then held the English king prisoner in the castle built by Hademars von Kuenring in Dürnstein (1192-1193).

The royal prisoner was allowed to receive traveling singers (troubadours) for his entertainment, which probably later gave rise to the legend of the singer Blondel. His faithful minstrel wandered from castle to castle until he discovered his king in Dürnstein by singing a verse of a song that the prisoner had completed. Richard the Lionheart was set free again after paying a ransom of 150,000 marks of silver.

When you walk through the stone walls of the castle ruins at dusk, you almost feel like you've been transported back to the exciting Middle Ages.