Hatzfeld Castle (Ruin)

The family of von Hatzfeld is first mentioned in a document around 1138 as de Hepisvelt. Like the neighboring Counts of Battenberg, it was predominantly involved in the Hessian-Mainz conflicts during the High and Late Middle Ages as a partisan of Mainz. In 1282, its (now largely ruined) castle is mentioned, at the foot of which a town was built starting in 1340. After the extinction of the Hessian line of the von Hatzfeld, the town and lordship fell first by half in 1570, and then completely in 1588 and 1772 respectively, to the House of Hesse, to whom the von Hatzfeld had already enfeoffed their castle in 1311. In 1866, Hatzfeld became part of Prussia as part of the Hessian-Darmstadt hinterland and lost its town rights in 1885 according to Prussian law. After the dissolution of Prussia, Hatzfeld regained the designation of town in 1950.