Karlsburg, Bad Ems

Karlsburg Castle, also known as the Four Towers House, is a town castle in Bad Ems.

The original construction was started in 1696 by Johann Karl von Thüngen, who had fought as an imperial field marshal during the Second Vienna Turkish Siege. The castle was to serve as accommodation for his bathing stays in Bad Ems. The architect was Johann Christoph Sebastiani, a court architect from the Electorate of Trier. In the course of the French Revolutionary Wars, the house was severely devastated and was uninhabitable. In 1804 the ruinous house came into the possession of the Orania-Nassau rentmaster and bath administrator Goedecke and in 1817 passed by purchase to the bath physician Thilenius. In the time that followed, the building was extensively renovated and converted into a noble hotel. Finally, the castle became the property of the ducal Nassau domain administration, which leased it to the hotelier Heinrich Becker. From that time on, the house hosted numerous European princes and artists, such as Tsar Alexander II of Russia, his wife, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia, and Carl Maria von Weber. After the First World War, a recreation home for scientists and writers was to be established in it, which was to be run by a non-profit association. Today, the building houses a branch of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Office for Data and Information.