Reifferscheid Castle

View over the ruins to the preserved bergfried
Reifferscheid Castle, 2015 aerial photograph
The castle seen from the village

The ruins of Reifferscheid Castle (German: Burg Reifferscheid) stand at a height of 450 metres above sea level (NN) near the German-Belgian border between the mountains of the Eifel and the Ardennes in the municipality of Hellenthal. Its name probably comes from a forest clearing that belonged to a man called Rifhari, the names Rifersceith or Rifheres-sceit mean "woodland strip of Rifhari".

All that has survived of the medieval hill castle are the remains of the curtain walls, a gatehouse with two flanking round towers, a gabled entrance and a round, white-plastered bergfried made of rubble stone.