Schloss

Schloss Homburg stands above the village of Homburg am Main in the Main-Spessart district. It began as a high-medieval spur castle built on a sacred rock cone that drops steeply on three sides into the Main valley. Beneath the castle a cave is said to have been the retreat of Burkard, the first bishop of Würzburg, who died there in 754. The fortress once secured Würzburg’s influence in the southern Spessart. In the 12th century the local lords, the Herren von Hohenburg, built a new residential wing. In 1568 Philipp von Gebsattel transformed it into a schloss-like residence. After serving as a Würzburg revenue office and later as a school and town hall, the building was restored in the late 1990s by the local heritage society. Today the three-storey main building has a T-shaped plan with different roof styles and projecting timber-framed upper floors. Inside there is a small 17th-century hall with stuccoed ceiling and a late-Gothic chapel from 1568. The separate round keep, the Hoher Turm, carries an 18th-century octagonal upper section with tall arched windows. A three-arched bridge leads up to the castle from the village. Since 1999 the site has hosted the annual Sommerakademie Schloss Homburg, turning the former stronghold into a lively centre for contemporary art.