Altenburg Castle

The Altenburg near Felsberg is the ruin of a medieval hilltop castle at 160 m above sea level near the Felsberg district of Altenburg in the Schwalm-Eder district in Hesse. It is located on a basalt hill on the northern, left bank of the Eder directly opposite the confluence of the Schwalm. The Altenburg is the older and smaller sister castle of the Felsburg, located about 2 km northeast, on the old trade route Frankfurter Landstraße.

The Altenburg was probably the first residence of the Amtsgrafen (bailiff counts) of Felsberg, who inhabited the nearby Felsburg from 1072. Members of an unknown Amts- or Untergrafen (sub-count) family from the Staufer period are assumed to be the probable builders. The Landgraves of Thuringia already held an important control post at the crossing of the Frankfurter Straße over the Eder.

The greatest importance of the Altenburg was probably in the period after Archbishop Konrad of Mainz built the Heiligenburg on the opposite bank of the Eder in 1185 as a stronghold against the Hessian Landgraves.

The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1322 as Aldinberg, when the widow of the ministerialis Werner von Besse sold the castle with its associated water mill and fishery to Landgrave Otto I of Hesse. Landgrave Heinrich II renovated the Altenburg to strengthen his position against the Archbishopric of Mainz. In 1352, he gave a part of the castle to the brothers Hermann and Gottschalk von Holzheim as a pledge, and it later passed entirely into their possession. The brothers erected the curtain wall and built the keep with battlements, which is still preserved today, between 1388 and 1392. The Landgrave-Hessian vassal Konrad von Spiegel zu Desenberg defeated a force of Abbot Berthold II of Hersfeld near the Altenburg in 1367. Landgrave Hermann II consolidated his position in Hesse by granting Pope Urban VI and the Roman-German King Wenzel the Altenburg with its associated estates as a fief in March 1388. The Altenburg was subsequently elevated to a noble village in 1390. After the Lords of Holzheim, the Lords of Elben became the feudal lords of the castle. The Lords of Gilsa are also said to have been in possession of the castle at times.

During the Peasants' War in 1525, a Franconian peasant troop advanced to the Altenburg, captured it, and burned it down. Since then, the palas has been in ruins, and only the rondel, some windows in the gable wall, and parts of the cellar vault have been preserved.

After the extinction of the Lords of Elben in 1535 or 1536, Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse transferred the Altenburg and its associated estates to Ludwig von Boyneburg. In 1540, he had the manor house, with the exception of the west wing, rebuilt for 800 guilders. An associated manor farm is located at the foot of the castle rock. A family crest is located on the manor house. The gate of the manor farm dates from 1610.

During the Thirty Years' War, Tilly's troops plundered the Altenburg and the village in 1631. Johann Friedrich von Boineburg made the castle habitable again in 1640. In 1764, the branch of the Boineburg family that owned it until then died out, and the castle complex subsequently fell into disrepair. The residential buildings had to be demolished in 1811 due to dilapidation.

Modern Era

In 1943, numerous citizens of Altenburg sought refuge from the flood on the Altenburg after the destruction of the Eder dam. In 1945, the ruin suffered further damage from shelling by American tanks.

The castle ruin is still owned by the von Boineburg family. It can be visited once a year. The ruin is to be renovated.