Die Burg Kirkel ist eine Burgruine im Saarland, die etwa in der Mitte zwischen den Städten St. Ingbert, Homburg, Neunkirchen und Zweibrücken liegt. Sie steht auf dem Schlossberg, einem freistehenden Buntsandsteinfelsen. Heute ist die Burgruine das Wahrzeichen des Ortsteils Kirkel-Neuhäusel der Gemeinde Kirkel und ein beliebtes Ausflugsziel.

Geschichte

1075 erfolgte die erste Erwähnung eines Grafen Gottfried von Kirkel. Anfang des 12. Jahrhunderts gelangte die Burg in den Besitz der Grafen von Saarwerden. Bei der Teilung von 1212/14 kam die Burg an die Linie Saarwerden-Kirkel. 1242 verstarb Graf Heinrich I. von Saarwerden-Kirkel kinderlos. Dessen Besitz teilten sich seine Neffen, darunter Arnold und Johann von Siersberg. Die Burg Kirkel kam an Johann von Siersberg, der sich 1250 „von Kirkel“ nannte. Er und seine Nachkommen, die Herren von Kirkel, erlangten die Reichsunmittelbarkeit und besaßen bis zum Aussterben der Linie 1386 die Burg als Reichslehen. Im 13. Jahrhundert erfolgte der Bau des kleinen und des runden Turmes und im 15. Jahrhundert entstand im Schutz der Burg das Dorf Kirkel.

Zwischen 1410 und 1689 war die Burg im Besitz der Herzöge von Pfalz-Zweibrücken. Von 1580 bis 1596 erfolgte der Umbau der Burg zum Wohnschloss durch Herzog Johann I. Als man ihm davon abriet, da ein Feind von dem die Burg überhöhenden Berg sehr hineinschießen könne, antwortete er: „So werde ich noch sehrer von inwendig hinauß schiessen“. 1635 wurde die Burg durch einen Brand stark zerstört und wieder aufgebaut, 1677 wurde die Burg im Französisch-Niederländischen Krieg erneut zerstört. 1689 kam es zur nächsten Zerstörung im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg.

Ab ca. 1740 wurde die Ruine als Steinbruch genutzt. 1955 erfolgte der Wiederaufbau des Rundturms; er wurde mit einer Turmhaube versehen. Archäologische Ausgrabungen seit 1994 brachten genauere Erkenntnisse zur Baugeschichte, zum ehemaligen Aussehen und zur Ausstattung der Burg.

Heutige Nutzung

Die Ruine dient heute als Ausflugsziel, der 32 m hohe Bergfried als Aussichtsturm. In einem ehemaligen Tagelöhnerhaus unmittelbar unterhalb der Burg befindet sind ein kleines Burg- und Heimatmuseum. Seit 1994 besteht eine archäologisches Forschungsprojekt. Auf der Unterburgebene findet in den Sommermonaten der sog. Kirkeler Burgsommer statt. Dafür wurden unter anderem eine Steinbildhauerei, eine Holzwerkstatt, eine Schmiede, eine Bäckerei, eine Nähstube und ein Bogenschießstand eingerichtet.



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Merburg is a ruined small castle near Homburg, Saarland, Germany. Details about the castle's builders and most of their owners are unknown. Parts of the fortification date to the early 12th century, likely at the location of an older refuge castle from the 10th century. In 1179, a Count Dietrich von Merburg is documented. The castle was probably abandoned in the late 12th century.



Merburg

Karlsberg Castle (German: Schloss Karlsberg) is a castle ruin on Buchenberg east of Homburg in Saarland, Germany. The castle was constructed from 1778 to 1788 in Baroque and Classical style by Johann Christian von Mannlich, architect and general building director of the dukes of Zweibrücken, by order of Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken. The castle was the largest country palace of Europe and served as the residence of the Duke of Zweibrücken. In 1793 the castle was destroyed by French revolutionary troops.

Charles II August was the son of the (titular) Count Palatine and prince of Palatinate-Zweibrücken and Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler Frederick Michael. This means, his father was the head of the house Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler, a side branch of the house Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, which was a side branch of the ducal house of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, which itself was a side branch of the house of Wittelsbach-Palatinate, which held the title of elector Palatinate of the Rhine and was the Protestant branch of the house of Wittelsbach.

His upbringing as the son of an unimportant poor prince did not give Charles II August the chance to build a castle of European standing. It was the extinction of the three main branches of the house of Wittelsbach, which gave him the opportunity to do so. In 1775 Christian IV, duke of Zweibrücken died without legitimate children. Charles August became his successor. At the same time, neither Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, Elector Palatine, the head of the Protestant main branch of the house of Wittelsbach, nor Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, the head of the Catholic main branch of the house of Wittelsbach, had surviving legitimate children. So Charles August was expected to succeed these relatives too.

Charles Theodore was not interested in the Bavarian inheritance (because of their illegitimate birth, his own children would not benefit from the inheritance). Therefore he was willing to sell his hereditary title and, after the death of Maximilian Joseph, his Bavarian property to the Austrian house of Habsburg.

The European powers, especially Prussia, were not interested in seeing the house of Habsburg make further land gains. The only way to prevent this from happening was to make sure that, instead of selling his own hereditary title too, Charles August protested against every attempt to impede his succession to the Bavarian throne. To insure this, Charles August received financial support from European powers such as France and Prussia. Part of the demonstration of his position as the inheritor of the Electorate of the Palatinate and Bavaria was an extensive holding of court.

Architect of the castle was Johann Christian von Mannlich, painter and architect, who held the office general building director of the duke of Zweibrücken.

In 1760 the Baron of Closen built a house, called Luisenhof (Louise grange) after his wife Louise von Closen (born von Esebeck), on the Buchenberg. When he died, the estate was inherited by his widow.

On July 27, 1777, duke Charles II August bought the Luisenhof for the price of 23,000 gulden (a journeyman had to work two days to earn one Gulden) and 60 new Louis d'or (about twice the worth of a gulden). He was influenced by his mistress, Caroline von Esebeck, a cousin of the owner, who was seeking to sell the property she did not use any more, because she lived with her new husband, the count of Strahlenheim-Wasaburg in Forbach.

From 1778 to 1788, a castle was constructed on the area of the Louisenhof. Leading architect was Johann Christian von Mannlich (born 2 October 1741, Strasbourg; died 3 January 1822, Munich), a painter and architect, who became court painter and general building director of the duke of Zweibrücken.

The castle was constructed in the style of classicism. It was one of the first buildings within the Holy Roman Empire constructed in this new style.

The main entrance was located in the valley in front of the castle. There the Karlsberger Hof (Karlsberg grange), a farm building, was constructed. This is the only building of the castle complex that is still intact. From there, a meandering road led to the mansion, a three winged building, arranged around a court of honour.

The main buildings were constructed along the edge of a hill, giving a view over the surrounding countryside.

 In 1778 the construction of the first buildings began. Several buildings were constructed at the same time.

The buildings were constructed in a very plain style. The uniform design of the one and two storied buildings includes continuous cornices and architrave blocks and gabled roofs. Only the buildings of the Corps de logis have a mansard roof. The buildings only impress by their size. The right side of the main complex of buildings has a length of 1,250 meters, thus creating the largest country palace of Europe.

With 42 meters, the staircase was one of the biggest of the Baroque period.

In the upper floor, the state rooms could be found.

Main parts of the equipment of the castle were created by purveyors to the French court. Other parts came from older castles of the dukes of Zweibrücken.

Most of the elaborate carved and gilded furnitures and plankings were created by the French court cabinetmaker Georges Jacob gefertigt. Sculptures were produced by the French sculptors Francois-Joseph Duret and Martin-Claude Monot. The silverware was created by Jean-Jacques Kirstein in Strassburg and the drapery came from Lyon. The equipment followed the plans of Johann Christian von Mannlich und Jean-Démosthène Dugourc.

The main piece of the show bedroom was a bed "à la Romaine", which was the archetype of following furniture of the kings of France. Main parts of the furnitures of this room can be found at the Munich residence and Berchtesgaden castle.

The garden has three parts, the park nearby the mansion, Karlslust (Charles' pleasure) and Hirschwürzloch.

The park near the mansion is a baroque style; Karlslust and Hirschwürzlust are English parks. It is not known who created the gardens. It looks like Mannlich worked on the plans but Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell did as well.

The court gardener, Johann Ludwig Petri, who created important parts of the park of Schwetzingen castle, seems to have been involved too. Other court gardeners were Ernst August Bernhard Petri, Bernhard Petri and Matthias Sckell.

After the outbreak of the French revolution and the begin of the first coalition war (1792–1797), the duke held a neutral position in relation to the revolutionary government of France. The dukedom of Zweibrücken had a close relationship to France. There even served a Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment, within the French army, which participated in several battles, especially the siege of Yorktown, where they played a prominent part of taking redoubt 9. As compensation for this policy of neutrality, the duke was granted neutrality by the French government. Because of this guarantee, unlike other princes, the duke stayed within his dukedom, close to the French territory and the French armies. After the execution of Louis XVI, Charles II August was to be put on trial in front of a revolutionary tribunal, which would have meant his death. Before French troops could arrest him, he was warned by a nearby farmer and was able to escape to Mannheim, to live in his castles of Mannheim and Rohrbach near Heidelberg.

Within the next six months, French and Prussian troops alternately gained control of the region around the castle. Protected by the Prussian army, the equipment was transported to Mannheim too.

When the French troops capitulated in Mainz, the relief troops retired back home to France. Leaving the region, they marauded the castle and the residents of the nearby villages were allowed to plunder the buildings. On the eve of July 28, the French soldiers set fire to the main buildings. To be able to do so, about one hundred cartloads of straw had to be transported from Metz.

The fire did not destroy all of the buildings. The mansion was destroyed, but most of the service rooms and farming buildings were unaffected.

In the aftermath, the castle hill was still inhabited. In November 1793, there were still children born and documented in the church register. Until 1797, the court still settled accounts concerning the castle, although there were no real efforts to secure or maintain the buildings. Therefore the buildings decayed even more. Napoleon returned the ruins to the duke's widow, under the condition that she remove all the ruins.

Parts of the furniture and equipment were auctioned off after the death of Charles II August. The rest was spread on several castles and museums of the house of Wittelsbach.

The furniture was used in Nymphenburg castle, Berchtesgaden castle and the residences of Munich Würzburg and Bamberg.
The collection of arms can be seen in the Historic Museum of the Palatinate, the German museum of hunting and fishing in Munich and Berchtesgaden castle.
Parts of the silverware are located in the silver chamber of the Munich Rezidenz.
The paintings formed the core of the Alte Pinakothek art collection.
The graphic collection came to the state graphic collection in Munich.
The coins were included in the state coin collection in Munich.
The books now are part of the Bamberg State Library.

Today, only one building remains. The Karlsberger Hof, a former farmhouse near the main entrance of the castle territory. After serving for different purposes as a sugar factory or a forester's house, the Karsberger Hof is owned by the Karlsberg brewery.

Of the other buildings nothing remains, except parts of the foundations. Soon after the destruction, the hill was forested. Within this forest, there are some ponds, especially the Karlsberg weiher (Karlsberg pond), which are remains of water basins of the castle park.

Karlsberg Castle

Kerpen Castle (German: Burg Kerpen) is a spur castle standing on a dolomite hill spur at a height of 500 m above sea level (NHN) above the Eifel village of Kerpen in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

History

The precise origins of Kerpen Castle are hidden by the mists of time. It is very likely that it was built by Sigibertus de Kerpene, first mentioned in 1136, or his son, Henry I (1142-1177). However, it is not yet possible to give an exact date of construction.

In 1265, Theodoric II of Kerpen converted the castle into a fief of the Archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert II of Falkenburg. The estate was later divided between him and his brother, William II.

In 1299, a 'Theodoric III' is recorded as Lord of Kerpen. His sons later founded the three family lines of Kerpen-Linster, Kerpen-Mörsdorf and Kerpen-Illingen (Lit.: Losse, 2003), who remained the owners of their ancestral castle and turned it into a jointly-owned inheritance or Ganerbenburg.

In 1446, Conrad of Kerpen-Mörsdorf sold his share of the castle to his cousin, William II of Sombreff, who acquired another share in 1448. Together with his family inheritance, this made William the sole owner of the castle. After his death, there were ongoing disputes over Kerpen castle, which lasted for more than 200 years.

William's son, Frederick, died childless, so that the castle fell to his sister, Margareta. Through her marriage to Count Dietrich of Manderscheid-Schleiden, the castle came into the possession of the count's family.

At the beginning of the 16th century, Dietrich IV of Manderscheid-Schleiden had a castle chapel built in the Gothic style. When he died childless in 1593, his brother-in-law, Philip of the Mark, had Kerpen Castle occupied by those loyal to him in order to lay claim to the estate. The quarrel between him and Philip's widow ended in a settlement in 1611 and he bought Kerpen from the widow.

But the property disputes were by no means over. In 1653, the Count of Löwenstein-Wertheim also tried to stake his claim to the estate by occupying the castle. It was not until 1674 that the dispute between the various noble families over Kerpen was brought to an end when the Imperial Chamber Court at Spires granted the estate of Kerpen and its castle to the Duchess of Arenberg. The Arenberg family remained owners until 1794, but never realised their initial plans to have the castle transformed into a schloss.

In the Reunion Wars, some of the buildings of the castle were destroyed by French troops in 1682. During the Thirty Years' War, soldiers of the French army under General Bouffleur blew up the castle and village and razed them to the ground.

After the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine by French Revolution troops in 1794, French administrators sold the ruin to the village in 1803 for demolition.

In 1893, Johann Heinrich Dün took over the dilapidated estate. He had it freed of rubble, built the present residential house and put a new battlement on the bergfried.

From 1907 to 1911, Kerpen Castle was owned by Clemens Manstein.

In 1911, Eifel painter, Fritz von Wille, bought the castle from Clemens Manstein and had urgent safety and repair work carried out. When the artist died in 1941, he was buried in the castle grounds.

In the same year, the company of DEMAG bought the castle to use it as a training centre. In the 1950s, the company carried out further measures to secure, modify and expand the castle.

From 1969 to 2007, Kerpen was owned by the county of Neuss, who used it as a country hall of residence (Landschulheim). Then a Dutch family bought the property and underwent extensive renovation in 2010.

Currently (2016) it is used as refugee accommodation.

Description
Kerpen Castle is built on a triple-terraced, hill spur, which is guarded to the north by a roughly 15-metre-wide neck ditch. The battlemented, 23-metre-high, bergfried stands on the first and highest terrace. On the top floor was once a dungeon.

On the middle terrace there used to be domestic and outbuildings, which no longer exist. The only relic from medieval times is the 35-metre-deep castle well in a roundel.

The lowest terrace is surrounded by an enceinte which is supported on heavy pillars. In the 17th century it house several outbuildings and castellan's houses before they were destroyed by the French in 1682.

Kerpen Castle (Eifel)

Saarbrücken Castle is a Baroque Château in Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland. It is located in the district of Alt-Saarbrücken on the left bank of the Saar. Earlier, a medieval castle and a Renaissance castle stood on the same site.

Historical sources from the year 999 report the existence of an imperial Castell Sarabruca. In 1009, it is named as Veste Sarebrugka. A document from 1065 mentions that Duke Frederick of Lower Lorraine received the castle as a fief from the King. Later, Emperor Henry IV gave the castle to Frederick's brother, Count Adalbero III of Luxembourg, who was Bishop of Metz.

In 1168, the castle was destroyed by Count Symon, on the orders of Emperor Frederick I. Later archives mention a Castel and Bourg on 2 July 1277.

A deed from 1485 reports that Count John II .... in 1459, because of the war, began to fortify and guard the two cities. In 1463, John added a bulwark and a drawbridge across the moat that separated the castle from the city.

Johann Andreae, the chronicler of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken, reports that Count Philip IV built a summer residence in Saarbrücken and provides a sketch of appearance of the medieval castle. It had a trapezoid-shaped inner court, surrounded by buildings of different widths. There was a tower on the western side. The bailey on the Saar side was enclosed on the northwest and southeast by buildings. The summer house had been designed by architect Christmann Stromeyer from the Electorate of the Palatinate and stood on the southeastern edge of the cliffSommerhaus, stand auf dem südöstlichen Vorsprung des Saarfelsens . The castle was surrounded in the north-east by the Saar Rocks and the river Saar, on the east by a ditch and on the south and southwest by the bulwark and a moat. The entrance was the drawbridge opposite the large tower. At the southern end of the garden was a red tower and at the northern corner a small round tower.

Drawings by Hienrich Höers provide a reliable and authentic image of the topography of the palace complex in the 17th century. It shows a four-winged structure inside a curtain wall with differently shaped bastions. Defensive structures including towers, walls, gatehouses and trenches followed the topography of the Saar rock. The rampart was strengthened with triangular corner bastions. In October 1983, excavations next to the road in the valley, performed while preparing the foundations of a technical annex, unearthed a part of these extensive fortifications in several different layers. A bastion and parts of the southwestern rampart were included in the design of the new annex, and can be visited today.

The trapezoidal main courtyard was surrounded by four wings. Three of these were joined at right angles. The main square was surrounded by buildings of equal width. The three-storey building could be accessed from spiral staircases in the stair towers at the corners of the inner courtyard. The framework was completed at the south side by four superimposed arcades. The forecourt on the Saar side was bounded on the northwest by the Botzheim building, named after the chief forester who resided there in 1728. To the northeast, it was bounded by a small single-storey cross-wing, and to then north by the castle wall. In front of the summer house on the southeastern rock was a garden house.

The castle was destroyed by imperial troops on 16 May 1677. It was restored around 1696 by architect Josef C. Motte, nicknamed la Bonté, on the orders of Countess Eleonore Clara of Hohenlohe-Gleichen, the widow of Count Gustav Adolph and her son Louis Crato. The wing adjacent to the road to St. Arnual Rauschen Thal (today's Talstraße) was, according to reconstruction plans that have been preserved, carried out à la mode. The courtyard was opened to the garden on the south side and bordered by a single-storey arcade hallway. The garden was extended beyond the castle wall and far into the valley as a terraced French formal garden. A sepia drawing, made after 1710, probably by Anton Kohl, shows the castle and the market square. It shows the ground plan of the restored castle. A low arcade tract replaces the earlier east wing. The west wing was a Bergfried, which had been built during the reign of the Hohenstaufens.

During sewer repairs in August 1977, a three-metre thick wall was discovered that had been part of the main tower of the Renaissance castle. In March 1989, during the redevelopment of the Palace Square, the staircase was removed and the foundations of the tower were fully excavated. This rectangular, five-storey clock tower — the fifth storey had been added in 1613 — towered over the castle's four wings and was topped with a dome with dormer windows and a roof lantern. The octagonal stair towers at the four corners of the courtyard were also covered with domes.

After Frederick Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken died without issue in 1728, Nassau-Saarbrücken fell back to the Nassau-Usingen branch of the House of Nassau. In 1735, Princess Charlotte Amalie, née Countess of Nassau-Dillenburg, the widow of Prince William Henry divided the possessions of the Walram line of Nassau among her sons. Charles, the elder son, was given the territories on the right bank of the Rhine; his younger brother William Henry received the territories on the left bank. When William Henry came of age in 1741, he commissioned the architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel from Zerbst to write a report on the structural condition of the Saarbrücken Castle. Stengel had studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1708 to 1712 and had been appointed court architect in Usingen in 1733. On 26 January 1739, he proposed a design for the reconstruction of the castle. The new design did away with any defensive functions and reflected recent changes in the accepted princely lifestyle and provided a more open attitude, free access to outer courtyards and garden and a more comfortable, more splendid and refined interior. He expanded this to a comprehensive plan for central Saarbrücken, with individual buildings and groups of buildings, including a spacious square in front of the castle, a city hall, a palace for the hereditary prince Louis and the Ludwigsplatz ("Louis square"), a square connecting the Protestant Ludwigskirche ("Louis Church"), the Peace Church, and yet another palace. The city plan followed the principles of geometry and symmetry from a references axis (point de vue). The new princely palace was planned on the site of the old castle on the Saar, with residential and administrative buildings dominating the cityscape. Space for the new palace was created by slighting the old castle walls, filling in the moat and diverting the river Saar. The staggered terraces on the slope towards the Saar were expanded to create space for the new, larger Baroque garden. The new palace, a three-wing structure open to the city, with residential, representative and administrative functions, was completed in 1748. Many architects, engineers and construction workers had been hired for this project.

The palace complex was based on a square floor plan. The corps de logis dominated the complex by its roof, which towered above the other buildings. Two equally long wings were attached to the corps de logis and the central pavillon, surrounding the cour d'honneur and thereby creating an additional living space. The four corners of this horseshoe shape were emphasized with pavilions reminiscent of the defensive towers of the earlier castle. The main courtyard and the central pavilion sat on the axis of symmetry of the complex. In the earlier castle, the main courtyard had been separated from the city by a mihgty donjon. In the 18th-century castle, however, the fourth side of the square was open to the city. A balustrade with busts delineated this side of the courtyard and provided an entrance on the axis of symmetry. On the other side of the main building, the axis of symmetry formed the axis of symmetrical garden, with symmetrical stairs descending to the valley. The forecourt was separated from the city by a wrought-iron fence with two octagonal guard houses. The entrance to the forecourt was through a gate that stood on the same axis as the main entrance of the corps de logis.

The basic plan of the three wings was a rectangle of 65.45 x 61.34 metres. The Corps de Logis had a length of 65.45 metres with 15 window bays: three in the central pavilion and three in each of the reserves and the corner pavilions. It was 18.26 metres deep and in this direction, it was divided by four windows.

The length of the wings was 43.08 metres. Each had ten axes: seven in the reserves and three in the pavilions at the end. In accordance with 18th-century customs, the wings were named from the point of view of the corps de logis: the wing nearest the Saar was called the right wing; the wing next to the Talstraße was called the left wing. The four pavilions were named after their compass points: northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast pavilion. The northwest and southwest pavilion each had three windows on their 14.98 metre long sides, and four windows on the 15.84 metre long sides. This geometric arrangement was supported by the symmetrical arrangement of the two main stairwells on the inner walls of the reserves in the corps de logis. The wings could also be accessed from two auxiliary staircases on the inner wall between the reserves in the wings and the northwest and southwest pavilions.

Access to the interior of the castle was from the courtyard through three main portals on the central pavilion. Another four entrances were located in the first window axis of the reserves of the wings. The corps de logis were accessed via two representative main stairs on the left and right of the central courtyard pavilion. These were in the reserves and were designed symmetrically. From the courtyard one entered the Grand Vestibule via a three-level stairs. Between the stairs and the garden was the Sala terrena. A ceremonial path led from the portal across the courtyard to the Corps de Logis. From the entrance hall, the main staircase (French: Escalier d'Honneur) led to the audience chambers of the princely family in the piano nobile, and from there to the mezzanine to the sumptuously furnished Grand Salon. The suite of the prince was in the piano nobile of the right wing of the palace, the princess's suite was of the left.

The civil administration and government archives were housed in the Rez-de-Chaussee of the right wing; the left wing housed the administration of the regiment William Henry maintained on behalf of the King of France. The storage rooms were in the basement and could be accessed from the courtyard via a door in front of the stables and a side staircase.

The palace remained the cultural and administrative centre of the principality for almost 50 years.

After the baroque palace was partially destroyed by fire in 1793 in the turmoil of the French Revolution. In 1810, the palace was reconstructed to house eight middle-class families. Architect Johann Adam Knipper rebuilt the heavily damaged north wing on top of the preserved baroque vaults. He demolished the central pavilion in the Corps de Logis and the mezzanine floor. A lithograph of 1812 shows the free passage where the central pavilion had been. The ground and first floors of the castle were divided into three floors and equipped with a new roof. In 1872, the owner of the adjacent part of the castle, the iron works magnate Karl Ferdinand Stumm, commissioned architect Hugo Dihm to build a new hall to fill the gap left by the demolition of the central pavilion. The new hall, however, was rather smaller than the baroque central pavilion.

Between 1908 and 1920, the district of Saarbrücken gradually acquired the apartments, in order to use the building as the seat of district government. In 1938, a Neo-Baroque façade and a grand open-air staircase to the Cour d'honneur were added to the central building. The western wing was partially destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1947 and 1948.

By 1969, the structural condition of the castle had deteriorated massively. Safety regulations mandated that the south wing be locked up immediately. Several plans were proposed for the reconstruction of the castle. Ideas ranged from reconstructing Stengel's baroque palace to completely demolishing the building. In 1981, the district of Saarbrücken decided to renovate the building and replace the central pavilion. Construction lasted from 1982 to 1989. The hall built by Dihm was torn down and replaced by a steel skeleton pavilion designed by the architect Gottfried Böhm, of the same size as the former baroque pavilion. Dihm's neo-baroque façade was retained, and the space between this façade and the new building was converted into a grand entrance hall. The hip roofs of the corner pavilions were replaced by gable roofs, similar to those on the baroque palace.

The Saarbrücken castle now serves as the administrative headquarters of the District of Saarbrücken.

The exhibition rooms of the Historical Museum Saar are housed in the vaulted cellar and a new annex. Casemates were uncovered during extensive excavations between 2003 and 2007. These can now be visited as part of the museum.