Rittershain Castle (Rockensüß)

Rittershain Castle is a castle complex with an Art Nouveau park. The castle complex is located in the Rockensüß district of Cornberg in the Hessian district of Hersfeld-Rotenburg.

In 1322, a settlement near the current castle site was first mentioned in a document. But by 1376, Rittershain was desolate, as the Lords of Rotenburg held "the Schulze, fields and arable land at Rittershayn" as a Hessian fief. Subsequently, Rittershain became a Hersfeld fief of the Lords of Eschwege, which passed to the Lords of Wehren and was finally transferred to the Lords of Cornberg in 1583.

Gerhard Mercator's map from 1592 shows an estate managed by the von Biedenfeld family. In 1843, Hermann Freiherr von Biedenfeld built a new farm belonging to Rockensüß. Subsequently, in 1854, the present Art Nouveau castle with a park was built for the von der Recke family. It is now owned by a family from the Ruhr area.

In the 20th century, a restaurant was operated in Rittershain Castle. The art trail "Art back to nature" by the Austrian artist Motron A. Havelka passes by Rittershain Castle.

Since February 1986, the castle and the farm buildings, including seven hectares of agricultural land, have been leased to the Association for the Promotion of Research and Training in the Field of Plant Breeding. Since August 2011, the association has moved to Gut Ddickenrück.