Germany
Sonnenberg Castle is the ruin of a spur castle in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg on the slopes of the Vordertaunus in Hesse. It was built from 1200 by the brothers Count Heinrich II and Ruprecht of Nassau on a rock to protect Wiesbaden, as a stronghold against the neighbouring Lords of Eppstein, with whom there were lasting border disputes. The Nassaus had probably been granted the royal court of Wiesbaden as a fief by Frederick I in gratitude for their support in the Roman campaigns of 1154. The royal court of Wiesbaden first appears in 829 as the administrative seat of the Königssondergau, which had been established by Charlemagne. However, the court of justice for the gau lay within the territory of the Eppsteins. This complicated distribution of possessions between the two houses gave rise to constant discord.
Machine-translated from “Burg Sonnenberg” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Burg Sonnenberg ranks #7,076 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #635 of the 711 mapped in Germany. 15 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Wiesbaden, 3 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
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