Wetterburg Castle

Wetterburg is the ruin of a spur castle at 225 m above sea level in the Wetterburg district of the town of Bad Arolsen in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district. It is located at the northern end of Wetterburg, approximately 300 meters north-northwest of the Twistesee dam, which was built between 1973 and 1978.

Count Heinrich IV of Waldeck had the castle built in 1306 on a rocky spur between the Aar and Twiste rivers. The construction was his reaction to the fact that in 1304, Volkmarsen and Kugelsburg had been pledged to the Archbishop of Cologne, Heinrich II von Virneburg. The Archbishop, in turn, felt provoked by the construction of the castle. This led to a court case and subsequently to an arbitration process. On August 15, 1325, it was agreed to grant the Archbishop of Cologne half of Wetterburg as property. Both sides were not allowed to use the castle against each other in a dispute. A part of the castle was handed over to Cologne in 1327. In another dispute in 1346, this solution was reaffirmed. The joint ownership lasted until 1454. After that, there were numerous changes of ownership.

Götz von Berlichingen ambushed Count Philipp II of Waldeck in March 1516 in front of the castle and kidnapped him for ransom; this led to his second outlawry in 1518.

An engraving by Wilhelm Dilich from 1605 depicts the castle with two almost equally large residential buildings. The castle fell into disrepair in the 17th century and was eventually used as a quarry. It is said to have been a ruin as early as the Thirty Years' War. The gate tower collapsed in 1801 and was subsequently demolished.

Ludwig Bechstein reported in the 19th century that, according to a legend, "a spirit in the form of a brandy barrel" haunted the castle.

Around the outer bailey, a representative stone and half-timbered building erected in 1576, the village of Wetterburg developed as a former castle freedom. Today, the outer bailey houses a restaurant.