Rodenberg Castle (Ruin) (Menden)

The origins of Rodenberg Castle date back to before 1249. It served as the ancestral seat of the ministerial family of the Lords of Rodenberg, who possessed property in the Menden region. In 1272, the Rodenbergers acquired the Freigrafschaft Menden from the Counts of Arnsberg. Due to the misuse of their rights, Archbishop Siegfried von Westerburg of Cologne seized the opportunity to bring the castle under his control and staff it with his own burgesses. As early as 1262, he had elevated Menden to a city, which, however, was temporarily destroyed after the Battle of Worringen in 1288. Due to financial difficulties, the castle was later pledged to the Count of Berg, who passed it on to the Counts of the Mark. Archbishop Wigbold von Holte managed to briefly bring the castle back into archiepiscopal possession.