Wildenburg Castle

Wildenburg Castle is a smaller castle building in the Wildenburger Land in the northern part of the Altenkirchen district near Friesenhagen, above the small castle settlement of Wildenburg located in the valley, on the road connecting Friesenhagen via Wildenburg to the former train station of the same name on the disused and now dismantled Finnentrop–Freudenberg railway line.

The term "Wildenburger Land" has been mentioned in local history books since the early 15th century. The owner of this dominion at that time was Gerhard von Wildenburg. The property was administered from Wildenburg Palace, which is now, however, called "Wildenburg Castle".

Wildenburg is the ancestral seat of the Lords of Wildenburg, who in the early 13th century were, as Lords of Aremberg, bailiffs of the Werden property in that area. They built the castle, after which they named themselves in 1239. The last Lord of Wildenburg, Hermann von Wildenburg, died in 1418. His nephews, the sons of his sister Jutta, who had been married to Johann von Hatzfeldt since 1387, inherited the Wildenburg property. Since then, the Hatzfeldt family has owned the castle; in 1806, the Wildenburger Land fell to the Grand Duchy of Berg, in 1815 to Prussia, and in 1946 to Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1808 to 1815, Wildenburg was the seat of a canton administration in the Département Sieg, before it was abandoned and fell into disrepair in the mid-19th century.