Altwehrda Castle (Ruin) (Wehrda)

The castle ruin Altwehrda is located north of the Haunetal district of Wehrda in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in Hesse.

The ruin lies on the plateau of the Fulda-Haune tableland, on the left side of the Hirschelbach valley, at an altitude of 249 meters above sea level. Today, the ruin lies between fields on open ground, about 700 meters north of the village center of Wehrda.

About 1.3 kilometers east in the Haunetal lies the Sinzigburg and 2.5 kilometers east, already in the Rhön, lies the Hauneck Castle.

The lowland castle and presumed moated castle today has an approximately square ground plan. The ruin mound is overgrown with trees and shows only a few sandstone wall remains. Only in the northwest does a larger wall remnant still stand, which presumably belonged to a tower.

Remains of a castle moat around the castle were said to have been visible in the 1980s, but have since completely disappeared due to agricultural use around the ruin. The moat was presumably filled with water by dams on the Hirschelbach.

About 200 meters southwest of the castle lies the small "manorial" cemetery, where there are still graves from the 18th and 19th centuries of the Barons von Trümbach. To this day, the cemetery is used by the von Campenhausen family.

When the castle was built is not known. The first documentary evidence dates from 1308, when Abbot Heinrich V, Count of Weilnau, pledged the house "Werdowe" to the ministerial family von Trümbach, who received it as a fief in 1310. This family (formerly called Trubenbeche or Trubenbach in documents) presumably had their first ancestral seat in Altwerda. It is also possible that they were previously in possession of the Sinzigburg.

According to a document from 1483, Altwehrda was a refuge castle for the Neukirchen court. According to further documents, the castle was still inhabited in the 15th century. Around 1637, during the Thirty Years' War, the castle was destroyed and not rebuilt.