Vorderburg Castle

The Vorderburg, also known as Landschadenburg, is a medieval hilltop castle at 155 m above sea level near Neckarsteinach in the Bergstraße district. It is the third oldest of the four castles Vorderburg, Mittelburg, Hinterburg, and Schwalbennest.

Around 1200, the castle was built by Ulrich I von Steinach, son of the minnesinger Bligger II von Steinach. The castle was half a fief of the Diocese of Speyer and half a fief of the Diocese of Worms. After the older line of the Lords of Steinach died out with Bligger V in 1268, the castle passed to the younger line of the Landschad von Steinach. In 1393, the Speyer portion (stone house with half a tower) was leased to Henne Triegel von Daudenzell and his son Hans. In 1427, a castle peace was concluded between the Landschad part and the Triegel part, but soon Eberhard von Angelach appeared in the Speyer part as Speyer bailiff and feudal lord, and soon thereafter Weiprecht III von Helmstatt, who also owned shares in the Hinterburg and Mittelburg. In 1474, the Landschad reappeared as owners of the entire Vorderburg, which was predominantly used as the seat of the Hansian line founded by Hans IV († 1571) and, after the death of his grandson Dieter VIII in 1625, passed to Friedrich Landschad von Steinach, with whom the noble family died out in 1653.

After the extinction of the Landschad, the dioceses of Worms and Speyer repossessed the former feudal property (Hinterburg, Vorderburg, and half of Mittelburg), briefly placed it under self-administration, and transferred it as a fief to Wolf-Heinrich von Metternich zu Burscheid in 1657. In the same year, he acquired the former Landschad allodial property from Dieter VIII Landschad's daughter Eva Elisabeth, as well as the remaining half of the Mittelburg from the Barons von Venningen, so that from the late mid-17th century, ownership of the four castles was once again united in one hand. After the Metternich line died out in 1753, the former fiefs and even the former allodial property were confiscated by the dioceses of Speyer and Worms. In 1803, the entire property passed to the State of Hesse as part of the mediatization, which sold the Vorderburg to a Dr. Wegerich. After the heir to the allodial property, Baron von Dorth, through a settlement with the State of Hesse, had received the Mittelburg, which was used as an official residence, as well as the ruins of the Hinterburg, he also acquired the Vorderburg from Dr. Wegerich. In 1910, the Lords von Dorth renounced the ruins of the Hinterburg, which then reverted to the Hessian state. Mittelburg and Vorderburg passed upon the death of the last Baron von Dorth, Ludwig, in 1925, to the son of his adopted son Alexander, who had died before him, Boemund Freiherr von Warsberg-Dorth, whose descendants still own the castles today.