Hinta Castle

Hinta Castle is located in the center of the core village of the East Frisian municipality of Hinte in the district of Aurich in Lower Saxony.

As early as the 14th century, there were two chieftain's castles in Hinte, the Westerburg and the Osterburg – the later Hinta Castle. The Westerburg was destroyed by the Hanseatic League in 1443. This happened in response to the support of piracy by East Frisian chieftains and cities.

The Osterburg was built at the end of the 13th century by the Probst chieftains as a classic Gothic building. The oldest part is a single-story stone house (the so-called Hohe Haus in the west wing) with a stepped gable preserved on the south side. This was built by the chieftains Aild Allena (†1482) and Frederik Allena (†1527). During the Renaissance, the castle gate was added in 1704. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the castle was rebuilt to its present form. Since then, it has been designed as a four-wing complex with a large inner courtyard, surrounded by a wide moat, and is located directly next to the 14th-century church built on a warft.

During the Emden Revolution, Emden troops occupied the castle in 1602. Count's troops then violently recaptured the castle. Apart from that, the Osterburg remained free from destruction.

After the death of the last Allena, the castle was inherited by his niece Etta von Oldersum (1527), who was married to Omko Freiherr von Ripperda zu Farmsum, a grandson of the couple Unico Freiherr von Ripperda zu Farmsum and Ulske Ukena. Omko was succeeded by his son Frederik (died 1554) and finally by his grandson Unico Freiherr von Ripperda (1553–1564), to whom an elaborate Renaissance monument in the Hinte Church was dedicated. Since 1567, the castle has been in private ownership of the von Frese family and can therefore only be viewed from the outside.