Nauses Castle

The history of Nauses began as early as 766, when the area came into the possession of Fulda Abbey through a donation from King Pippin. In the 14th century, Knight Kilian owned the village of Ober-Nauses as a Fulda fief and built or took over a castle to protect his estates. This complex served as a barrage against the Mümling valley. In 1357, Diether Gans von Otzberg acquired the property. The first documented mention of Nauses Castle occurred in 1471, when Philipp Gans II. von Otzberg received the complex as a fief from Count Palatine Friedrich I. He renovated the castle and had the buildings that still exist today erected towards the end of the 15th century. After the extinction of the Gans von Otzberg family in 1698, the castle passed to the Barons von Sickingen, who transferred it to the Princes von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1792. In 1806, Nauses Castle fell to Hessen-Darmstadt as a result of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.