While local historians held the view that the castle had been erected by Theoderich I, Count of Are, (who died in 1132) as a refuge for the ruling court of Adenau, nowadays his son Ulrich von Are, the self-proclaimed Count of Nürburg, is considered to be the person responsible for commissioning the building of the castle, even though there is no source material to back this theory. Castle Are is situated above Altenahr, and was built by a group of counts, probably the Ahrgau counts. The group was associated with the Carolingian nobility and named itself after it.