Ziegenburg Castle (Ruin) (Ziegenhagen)

Ziegenberg Castle, also known as Ziegenburg, is the ruin of a spur castle near Ziegenhagen, a district of Witzenhausen in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in North Hesse.

The castle ruin of Ziegenberg Castle is located on a rock spur of the "Burgberg" (Castle Hill), which is situated above or east of Ziegenhagen, a wooded mountain on the northern edge of the Kaufunger Wald. West of the castle, which is surrounded by the northern part of the Meißner-Kaufunger Wald Nature Park, the Rautenbach, a tributary of the Werra, flows through the valley where the village of Ziegenhagen is located.

The castle was probably built as a spur castle around 1100. Count Dedo de Zygenberch, who married a woman born von Dassel, was first mentioned in a document here in 1116. At the beginning of the 13th century, the lineage of the Counts of Ziegenberg began to split into three lines through the brothers Hermann the Black, Hermann the White, and Giso. Hermann the Black was often in the retinue of Duke Otto of Braunschweig and was married to Hildegunde von Lauterberg. The Hermann line of the Ziegenbergs died out in 1266 with the death of Hermann the White. Hermann the Black had already passed away four years earlier. Giso von Ziegenberg was one of the co-founders of Mariengarten Monastery. In 1320, the castle was conquered by Landgrave Otto I of Hesse and subsequently pledged to the von Berlepsch family. In 1494, it came as a male fief to Georg von Buttlar. In the mid-16th century, Erasmus von Buttlar was the last owner. After 1541, the castle fell into disrepair and was partially demolished.