The scientific assumption is that the Archbishop of Trier, Arnold II, had Stolzenfels Castle built first and foremost because the Archbishop of Mainz had had Lahneck Castle built in 1232. This way, both archbishoprics on the mouth of the Lahn River were equally safeguarded against each other. However, the fate of many castles befell Stolzenfels Castle: the Palatine War of Succession reduced it to ashes. It is thanks to the Prussian crown prince, later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, that the former castle built on a hill can today be visited as one of the most important works of Prussian Rhine Romanticism.  The crown prince obtained the castle ruin in 1823 as a gift from the City of Koblenz – and had it developed to a proud residence with a regal range of rooms, by two of the most important German architects of this period, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and his student and successor August Stüler. From this time on, the Stolzenfels Castle served the royal family as a summer residence.
Visitors now walk up to the Castle through the landscape park designed by the Prussian head of gardening Peter Joseph Lenné.