Schoenfels Castle is a historic and quite interesting castle that has the same name as the village where it is located, Schoenfels, which is south of the town of Mersch in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Schoenfels Castle was built as a fortified keep in 1292 by a Ferri, alias Friedrich von Schoenfels, in the Valley of Seven Castles. Later, the castle passed to the Von Ansembourg family through marriage and, later still, to the Von Sassenheim family. Later in the 16th century, Henri Schloeder of Lachen became the owner and the Lord of Schoenfels and Busbach.
Since it had no major importance strategically, the French army in 1683 destroyed its defenses, and two years later, the castle and the village were burned to the ground during a battle between Theodor von Neunheuser and the Lords of Brandenbourg. With insignificant importance, the Schoenfels Castle was left like that, and the tables turned for it in the 19th century.
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In 1813, the son of Pierre-François de Gaillot de Genouillac, François-Romain de Gaillot, sold the castle to Jean-Baptiste Thorn-Suttor, who was governor of the Province of Luxembourg during the Belgian period. He also bought Hollenfels Castle in 1818, and the castle stayed in his possession for a couple of decades.
In 1840, he sold both castles to J. Engler, a senator from Brussels, where his son built a mansion next to the keep with a neo-Gothic roof, which was torn down by the state when it became the legal owner of the castle. Also, as Luxembourg is the owner, there is a restoration going on of the keep, with the hope of opening a visitors center, which it presently doesn’t have. Overall, the Schoenfels is a quiet symbol of Luxembourg that is waiting for its turn to shine bright once again.
