Dernbach Castle (Ruin)

Neu-Dernbach Castle was built before 1350 by the Knights of Dernbach, supported by the Haincher line of the Lords of Bicken. It was granted as a fief to the Landgrave of Hesse, who re-granted it to the builders in the same year. After the end of the Dernbach Feud, the Dernbachs left their original ancestral seat Alt-Dernbach and in 1333 had to sell their possessions in the Herborn Mark to the Counts of Nassau. Kuno von Dernbach married Margarete von Solms in 1354 and received as a dowry, as well as from the Landgrave, the villages of Günterod, Krumbach, and the new settlement of Dernbach. The castle belonged to two family branches, the “von Dernbach” and the “von Dernbach called Graul”. In 1540, Peter von Dernbach gen. Graul sold his share of the castle to the Hessian Landgrave.