Gieselwerder Castle

Gieselwerder Castle is a vanished moated castle on the Weser river in the Gieselwerder district of the municipality of Oberweser in the Kassel district of Hesse.

As early as the 11th century, a small moated castle with a manor house, a keep, and a few outbuildings stood on the former Weser island "Gieselwerder".

From about 1231, the castle belonged to the Archbishop Siegfried III of Mainz. He appointed the Counts of Dassel as castellans. He also gained castellans from the castles of Schöneberg and Ziegenberg. Mainz lost the castle under Bishop Gerhard I in 1257 in a feud to the Welf Albrecht the Great. Even after that, ownership of the castle was disputed several times.

The castle served as the administrative seat for the Lords of Werder until 1538. When this was then moved to Sababurg Castle, the court and the customs collection point for water and land tolls remained. The now uninhabited Gieselwerder fell into disrepair. At the beginning of the 18th century, a half-timbered house was built on this site, which housed the Renterei (rent office) from 1851. A lightning strike hit the building on Ascension Day in 1913, and it burned down. Just one year later, the half-timbered house that exists today was built. From 1954 to 1965, it housed the forestry office. The municipality of Gieselwerder acquired the building in 1967 and has used it as the town hall for the entire municipality ever since.

In 1899, construction began on the first Weser bridge. During the work, remains of oak planks were found on the Weser riverbed, in which several iron cannonballs from the Thirty Years' War were stuck. One of the balls can be seen in the inner courtyard of the former castle.

Parts of the curtain wall and the foundation of the keep of the moated castle are still preserved.