That title’s not hyperbole. I literally have forgotten which castle this is. I had a Saturday with no plans before my wife and daughter got here to Germany, so I pulled out the map, and saw an icon for a “castle ruin” just east of Kaiserslautern. Perfect! So much of my preferred genre of fiction takes place in doom-haunted castle ruins, I thought I’d go check one out in real life!

It was up a steep hill (as all castles tend to be):

Through the trees, until I came upon the backside of the castle. Also like other castles in the Rhein valley, the architects took advantage of the boulders already in place.

The little village at the foot of the hill had some interesting features, too. A pretty church:

With a pretty set of doors:

One thing that I found interesting was the chisel marks on the stone:

There was also another church. Much smaller; in fact so small, it would best be called a chapel.

But wait, what’s that strange detail on the keystone? Is that some sort of pagan symbol? The Eye of Horus, perhaps?

I guess The Da Vinci Code got it right. Either that, or the Freemasons have infiltrated the Catholic church.