Dernbach Castle

Dernbach Castle was one of the rare hilltop water castles. The remains of the castle, built around 1200, and a residential house (now a manor house) built on the castle grounds in the 18th century are located in Dernbach (Westerwald) in the Westerwald district of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The castle was the ancestral seat of the Lords of Dernbach, mentioned between 1211 and 1214 and presumably extinct by the end of the 15th century, who were ministeriales in the service of the Counts of Isenburg at least from 1223 to 1380.

The castle was first mentioned in 1213 in connection with Gerhard von Dernbach and Heinrich I von Isenburg; the latter also became a castellan in Montabaur (ad castrum Humbach) in Heinrich's retinue, and in 1217 he signed a document as a witness (Gerhardus de Derinbach).

In 1380, Philipp von Dernbach sold the castle to Dietrich von Grenzau, from whom it later passed by inheritance to the Hilchen von Lorch family. From 1426 to 1722, the castle was a Trier fief of the Hilchen von Lorch. In 1746, Kurtrier claimed the castle as an escheated fief.

The castle in Dernbach near Montabaur was large, with four towers, three of them round. The square tower was also the gate tower, guarding access to the castle.