Altenstein Castle

The Altenstein castle ruin is a medieval castle ruin in the district of Asbach-Sickenberg in the Eichsfeld district in Thuringia.

The ruin of the spur castle is located on a small, southwest-facing mountain spur 350 m above sea level, above the upper valley of the Alte Hainsbach, a barely eight-kilometer-long right tributary of the Werra.

The castle most likely dates back to the Thuringian Landgraves, who were able to complete the expansion of their dominion into the lower Werra valley in the late 12th century. In connection with the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession, the chronicler Johannes Rothe mentions "eight fortified places on the lower Werra", but does not name them, which the Wettins assigned to Sophie of Brabant as an inheritance in a contract. Altenstein Castle was first mentioned in 1329, when the Hessian Landgrave Heinrich II pledged Altenstein, as well as the villages of Asbach-Sickenberg and Weidenbach, half to the knight Berthold Eselskopf and half to his squire Hugo from the Mark.

In 1346, Bruno and Hertwig von Weberstedt, as castellans, had to promise the Hessian Landgrave that they would not involve him in an unjust war, nor commit any other injustice or engage in robbery, as they were known for such misdeeds. In 1347, Berthold Eselskopf's sons ceded their rights to their brother-in-law Urban von Weberstedt. In 1375, Lippold von Hanstein acquired possession of Altenstein through pledging. On July 7, 1379, the Hessian Landgrave Hermann II again became owner of Altenstein Castle, transferring it to the von Mäenz family. From 1438 to 1643, the Hessian noble family von Bischhausen was in possession of Altenstein Castle; the castle was severely devastated in the Thirty Years' War. In 1643, the brothers von Bischoffshausen sold the fiefdom for 18,600 Reichstalers to the sovereign princess.