Pfalzgrafenstein lies on a rocky reef in the middle of the Rhine. Twenty to 30 men used to serve in this 700-year-old toll station. Pfalzgrafenstein was only one of a total of twelve customs facilities where vessels carrying wine were forced to stop between Mainz and Cologne. Traders even complained to the Pope. Now only the ferries taking tourists to the castle dock here. This tiny toll castle has many unique qualities including the fact it literally sits in the Rhine. The great novelist Victor Hugo described Burg Pfalzgrafenstein as “A ship of stone, eternally afloat upon the Rhine, and eternally lying at anchor before the town of Pfalzgrafen.”
