Spangenberg Castle

Spangenberg Castle (German: Schloss Spangenberg) is a schloss above the small German town of Spangenberg in the North Hesse county of Schwalm-Eder-Kreis. The originally Gothic building was first a medieval fortified castle, then a fortress, hunting lodge, prison, forestry school and is now a hotel and restaurant.

Spangenberg Castle is located on the wooded hill of Schloßberg, between the town of Spangenberg in the Pfieffe valley to the east and south, and the village of Elbersdorf on the Pfieffe tributary of Essebach to the west and north.

The first castle on the site was probably built by the lords of Treffurt, who came from Thuringia, as the centre of their small barony in the region around Spangenberg and Morschen. From here, it could guard the important trading route "through long Hesse" from Frankfurt to Leipzig. This road was an important factor in the development of the newly founded settlement below the castle, which was already being referred to as a town (civitas) in 1261. However it was not until 1309 that it was granted town rights by the knights, Hermann and Frederick of Treffurt, in accordance with the Lippstadt town rights act. The size and shape of the 13th-century hilltop castle are not exactly known.

In the southern part of the site, parts of the original palas have survived. This housed the social and residential quarters for the family of the castle lord. Access to the castle was probably especially well protected from the outset and the entire site was surrounded by a wall. It is likely that most of the outbuildings were initially constructed in the half-timbered style. Since a supply of drinking water was essential, the well, about 100 metres deep, would have been sunk during the construction of the castle.

The first recorded owner of the castle and town of Spangenberg was Lord Hermann of Treffurt in 1235. He was enfeoffed with the Barony of Spangenberg by the Count of Ziegenhain. Since that time the lords of Treffurt were also called the lords of Spangenberg. The brothers, Hermann and Frederick of Spangenberg and Treffurt became robber barons, causing unrest in 1327 in the surrounding Thuringian countryside. In the time that followed a marked decline in the fortunes of the lords of Treffurt and Spangenberg may be seen from the records.

Text adapted from “Spangenberg Castle (Hesse)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Spangenberg Castle ranks #4,527 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #349 of the 505 mapped in Germany. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,157 times in the last 60 days, more than 52% of the atlas. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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