The Breuberg Castle Burg Breuberg is among Germany's best preserved castles. The so-called Kernburg (“core castle”) arose at the beginning of the 13th century and was founded by the imperial abbey of Fulda in order to protect its Odenwald estates. Around 1200 the bailiwick was taken over by the Lords of Lützelbach, who thereupon called themselves Lords (Herren von) of Breuberg. In 1323 already, the male family line of the house of Breuberg died out with Eberhard III. of Breuberg. From the 14th century, the castle was expanded many times, making it today a journey through the building styles of the last 850 years. In 1446, Count Wilhelm of Wertheim sold Count Philipp the Elder of Katzenelnbogen his share of the castle for 2400 Gulden. The castle may have been damaged but was never destroyed, and was always used, thus explaining its good condition. Today the building belongs to the State of Hesse and serves as a youth hostel and a museum.

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Otzberg Castle (German: Veste Otzberg) in the German state of Hesse is a medieval castle on the summit of the Otzberg in the Odenwald forest at a height of 367 m above NN. On its northern slopes is the village of Hering, which grew out of the lower ward or castellan's settlement. The history of castle and village is therefore closely interwoven.

The region around the Otzberg probably belonged to the territory that King Pippin gifted in 766 A.D. to Fulda Abbey, together with Groß-Umstadt.

Otzberg Castle was probably built in the late 12th/early 13th century. At this time, Abbot Marquard I of Fulda secured the abbey estates and built castles that were visible from a long way as a sign of his influence.

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He transferred the castle to Conrad of Hohenstaufen, brother of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, as vogt. Conrad was Count Palatine of the Rhine.

The castrum Othesberg was first mentioned in the records in 1231. In this document the Archbishop of Mainz, Siegfried III, also the overseer of Fulda Abbey, guaranteed to Count Palatine Otto II the arrangement agreed in the previous year, the details of which are unknown.

In 1244 the castellanos de odesbrech are mentioned for the first time: the castellans or Burgmannen of Otzberg Castle. The fortifications must have been sufficiently developed that five castellans and their servants were able to occupy it. The castellans built houses in the village of Hering, so-called "castellan's houses" or Burgmannenhäuser. Of these only parts of the house owned by Gans of Otzberg have survived.

In the early 14th century, the resources of Fulda Abbey ran out so, in 1332, Prince-Abbot Henry VI of Hohenberg enfeoffed Otzberg Castle and the Fulda part of Umstadt for 4,600 pounds of Heller to Werner of Anevelt and Engelhard of Frankenstein, who carried out building work at Otzberg to the tune of 200 pounds.

In 1374 Fulda redeemed the estate again, but enfeoffed in the same year Otsperg die burg ("Otzberg the castle"), Heringes die stat darundir ("Hering the town below it") and half of Umstadt for 23,875 guilders to Ulrich of Hanau, who also carried out work on the castle, for 400 guilders.

In 1390 the abbey sold Otzberg and Hering and the half of Umstadt with the Hanau fief, which had meanwhile increased in value to 33,000 guilders, to Count Palatine Rupert II.

In 1504 the Bavarian Feud partly involved Otzberg. In the dispute over the Landshut succession, Emperor Maximilian imposed the imperial ban on Count Palatine Philip for a breach of the Landfrieden. Landgrave William II of Hesse seized Otzberg by force. After the Reichstag of Constance in 1507, Electoral Palatinate received the Amt of Otzberg back again and did not enfeoff it again. But weapon technology had changed so that the castle could no longer simply be held by castellans. In 1511, a Zwinger was built, the inner wall was strengthened and a new gatehouse built.

In the mid-16th century a stone town wall was built around the lower ward (the village of Hering).

In 1621, during the Thirty Years' War, a Bavarian corps of 2,000 men and imperial and Spanish troops camped in the area of Otzberg-Umstadt and besiged Otzberg Castle. A year later, in 1622, the garrison surrendered the castle. The castle and amt of Otzberg as well as half of Umstadt went back to Hesse in 1623 as compensation for war damage suffered.

In 1647 the French took the castle. They based themselves at the castle and helped themselves to the food and provisions. As a result of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 Otzberg was returned to the Palatinate.

Although the whole of the Palatinate was in French hands during the Napoleonic Wars, the two Ämter of Otzberg and Umstadt remained Electoral Palatine. At that time the Palatine Archives were stored at Otzberg Castle, in which one can read the property claims for a new era.

WIth the stabilisation of the political situation, Otzberg Castle lost its military importance for the Palatinate. From 1711 active service soldiers were gradually replaced by disabled veterans, sot that from 1720 the castle became purely an invalids garrison, which guarded the prisoners incarcerated there.

In 1802 the Electoral Palatine Oberamt of Otzberg went to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, which used it from 1803 as a state prison.

In 1818 Otzberg Castle was abandoned as a military location.

On 25 July 1826 the Finance Ministry in Darmstadt issued a decree that the tower of the castle, the commandant's house with its small stables, the doctor's house, the stable near the Marketenderei, the well house and the new barracks (Bandhaus) should be preserved. All other buildings should be sold for demolition.

In 1921 the Bandhaus was converted into a youth hostel.

In the 1950s a forestry office and a restaurant were housed in the commandant's house. This arrangement continued until the mid-60s when the place was rented to various tenants to run the restaurant.

In 1985, a museum the Collection of Folk Art in Hesse (Sammlung zur Volkskunde in Hessen) moved into the Bandhaus. In 1996 the Korporalshaus was rebuilt. It has since been used as a museum building and location for the Standesamt of the municipality of Otzberg.

The occupants from the outset were soldiers; in the 14th century, six men lived there; around 1471 there were 14 people. Specialised paid soldiers first appeared in the 16th century when the place was converted into a defensible fortification.

The appearance of the fortress is dominated by its double concentric walls built in the 16th century and oval in shape, and the bergfried which is of Romanesque origin. Its character is still that of a fortress from the time after the introduction of artillery, typical castle features, like towers are entirely missing.

The bergfried, also known locally as the Weiße Rübe ("White Beet", also the name for the wild turnip), is the oldest building in the castle. On clear days the visitor can see the whole of the county of Darmstadt-Dieburg and as far as the city of Frankfurt am Main and the Taunus hills from the top of the 17-metre-high keep.

The castle well dates to about 1320 and is one of the deepest wells in Hesse. After recent excavations the depth of the well has now been estimated as about 50 metres. Next to it is a 1788 treadwheel that made it considerably easier to raise water.

The commandant's house (Kommandantenhaus), in which the castle pub is housed today, was built in 1574 together with several other new buildings.

The palas houses the Otzberg Museum – Documenting the history of Veste Otzberg.

The old cabinet room was later used as a barrack. Due to the Hessian demolition decree (hessischen Abrissverfügung) of 1806 it was one of the few buildings that was destroyed at Otzberg Castle. Today, only the wall foundations remain.

The "corporal's house" (Korporalshaus), rebuilt in 1996 is used as a registry by the municipality of Otzberg.



Otzberg Castle

Schloss Johannisburg is a schloss in the town of Aschaffenburg, in Franconia in the state of Bavaria, Germany. It was erected between 1605 and 1614 by the architect Georg Ridinger (de) for Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg, Prince Bishop of Mainz. Until 1803, it was the second residence of the Prince Bishop of Mainz. It is constructed of red sandstone, the typical building material of the Spessart, the hills near Aschaffenburg.

Schloss Johannisburg is located in the city of Aschaffenburg, in the district of Lower Franconia of the state of Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the center of the city, overlooking the river Main.

The palace was erected between 1605 and 1614 by the architect Georg Ridinger (de) for Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg, Archbishop of Mainz. The considerable expense came from the taxes of his fief: Eichsfeld, Erfurt and the Mainzer Oberstift (the part of the Electorate administered from Aschaffenburg) made the largest financial contributions. A keep from the destroyed 14th-century castle that had formerly stood on the site was included in the construction and is the oldest part of the castle. The prior castle had been burned down along with most of the town on 10 August 1552 by the troops of Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.

Until the end of the ecclesial princedoms in Germany in 1803, Schloss Johannisburgwas the second residence of the Prince Bishop of Mainz. At the end of the 18th century, the interior had been restructured in the style of Classicism (or Neoclassicism) by Emanuel Herigoyen (de).

Karl Theodor von Dahlberg, Archbishop of Mainz in 1803, retained the territory of Aschaffenburg — turned into the newly created Principality of Aschaffenburg — and was awarded other territories in compensation for territories west of the Rhine, including Mainz, which were annexed by France. From 1810-3, Aschaffenburg was part of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Aschaffenburg and Schloss Johannisburg then passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

During the reign of Ludwig I, Schloss Johannisburg served as the summer residence of the King, who referred to Aschaffenburg as his "Bavarian Nice". He commissioned the construction of a Roman villa known as Pompejanum within sight of the palace.

The palace was nearly destroyed in the closing days of World War II. Rebuilding started in 1951 and took more than twenty years.

Schloss Johannisburg is one of the few mostly symmetrical palace buildings of the German Renaissance. The castle sits on a terrace overlooking the river, which Ridinger expanded in area and height, elevating the castle above even the highest flood lines. Four wings surround an almost square interior court. The buildings have three floors each with the exterior structured only by fascia and a central three-tiered transverse gable in each roof. A tower is located on each the four corners, extending outward beyond the building line. From a square foundation the towers turn octagonal from the seventh floor upwards. The towers are topped by slate roofs with roof lanterns. The symmetry of the structure is only broken by the old keep which extends into the courtyard from the north wing. It is crowned by a steep roof with four small decorative towerlets at the corners. This roof design was in contrast to Ridinger's plans, who had intended the central keep to mirror the appearance of the castle's corner towers.

Small round stairway towers are located in the four corners of the court. The Schlosskirche or chapel is in the north wing. It extends through the ground and upper floor, with a rib vault referencing Gothic style. The chapel's altar, made from alabaster and marble, is by Hans Juncker (de). It features a statue of Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg, holding a model of the castle.

The castle is built from Buntsandstein, notably from the quarries of Obernburg and Miltenberg. Although the exterior walls are largely devoid of ornamentation, numerous artistic carvings were added to the gables an the gateways.

The castle is one of the main attractions of Aschaffenburg and its landmark. Schloss Johannisburg is one of the most important buildings of the Renaissance period in Germany.

Schloss Johannisburg is open to the public and hosts several museums: Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg, a gallery of paintings (with works by Lucas Cranach the Elder), the Paramentenkammer of the palace chapel (with vestments from the former treasury of Mainz Cathedral), the residential rooms (furnished in Neoclassical style) and the Municipal Palace Museum (arts and handicraft). There is also the world's largest collection of architectural models made from cork, built by court confectioner Carl May and his son after 1792.

Schloss Johannisburg

Mespelbrunn Castle is a late-medieval/early-Renaissance moated castle on the territory of the town of Mespelbrunn, between Frankfurt and Würzburg, built in a tributary valley of the Elsava valley, within the Spessart forest. It is a popular tourist attraction and has become a famous Spessart landmark.

The first precursor of Mespelbrunn Castle was a simple house. The owner was Hamann Echter, vizedom of Aschaffenburg, a title which means that he was the representative of the ruling prince, the Archbishop of Mainz Johann von Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein (de) at the castle and town of Aschaffenburg. On 1 May 1412, Johann gave the site, a forest clearing next to a pond, to Echter, a knight, who constructed a house without fortifications. It was a reward for Echter's services against the Czechs. The Echter family (de) originates from the Odenwald region. Their name presumably means "der die Acht vollstreckt", the executor of the ostracism. In the 15th century the Spessart was a wild and unexploited virgin forest, used as a hideout by bandits and Hussites, who despoiled the regions nearby. Therefore in 1427 Hamann Echter, the son of the first owner, began to rebuild his father's house to a fortified castle with walls, towers, and a moat using the nearby lake.

Only the Bergfried, the round tower, remains from the 15th century. The following generations changed the defense structures to a typical manor-house, mainly built in the Renaissance style. Today's fundamental appearance is the result of reconstruction done between 1551 and 1569 by Peter Echter of Mespelbrunn and his wife, Gertrud of Adelsheim.

The most famous member of the family was Julius Echter, Prince-bishop of Würzburg. A prominent proponent of the Counter-Reformation, he founded the Juliusspital, a hospital, in Würzburg, in 1576, and re-founded the University of Würzburg in 1583.

Due to its remote location in a side valley of the Elsava, surrounded by forests, the castle was one of the few in Franconia spared destruction in the Thirty Years' War.

In 1665, the last male member of the Echter family died. In 1648, Maria Ottilia, Echterin of Mespelbrunn, had married Philipp Ludwig of Ingelheim, a member of a family of barons, later made Grafen (Counts) of Ingelheim. By permission of the emperor, the name of the Echter family was preserved, because they were allowed to merge their names to Counts of Ingelheim called Echter von und zu Mespelbrunn.

In 1875, a Romanesque Revival chapel was built as a burial place for the Ingelheim family overlooking the Elsava valley.

The main building of Mespelbrunn Castle is built on an almost square base on the eastern side of a lake. On the whole northern, western and southern side, the court is surrounded by two storied houses. On the northeastern and southwestern corner, towers of similar height are added to the houses. These are decorated with stepped gables on the western side. The main entrance is on the left side of the southern building. On the western side, the court is limited by two framed transits to the water and the main tower in center, which surmounts the castle.

In the 1930s, economic pressures forced the Ingelheim family (de) to open the site to the public. Today, Mespelbrunn Castle is still owned by the family of the Counts of Ingelheim, who live in the southern wing of the castle, having moved out of the main rooms.

In 1957, Mespelbrunn Castle was one of the locations of the German film Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (The Spessart Inn, 1958), based on the novella by Wilhelm Hauff.