Ebersburg Castle

The first documented mention of Ebersburg occurred around 1189 or 1190, when Archbishop Konrad of Mainz redeemed the castle and its revenues from his relative, the Count Palatine of Saxony, and subsequently returned it to him as a fief. The assumption that the castle was newly built or expanded around 1182 as part of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia's acquisition policy cannot be substantiated. Instead, it is presumed that Ebersburg was originally built to protect the Mainz court of Rottleberode and simultaneously posed a threat to the imperial city of Nordhausen. It was among the fortifications of the Thuringian Landgraves in northern Thuringia. After the extinction of the elder Thuringian Landgraviate house in 1247, the dominion passed to the Wettins through inheritance. In 1249, Count Siegfried of Anhalt claimed the castle as his wife's dowry and captured it after a feud. After further conflicts, the castle returned to the possession of the Wettins and was enfeoffed to the Counts of Stolberg in 1326. The castle's decay began as early as the 16th century.