Burg Winnerod

Burg Winnerod once stood on a hill 251 metres above sea level in the village of Winnerod, part of Reiskirchen in the Gießen district of Hesse. The site was first mentioned in 1252 as a farm with its own church, recorded as Winderode in the Arnsburg monastery’s charter book. The noble family von Windhausen held the fortified seat here, though the exact date of the original castle’s construction remains uncertain. Behind the manor house, rough stone walls still mark the old ramparts in the Burgwald area. The present manor is a three-storey classical building on a stone basement, built as an aristocratic residence for Friedrich Salentin von Zwirnlein. The ruins and the manor together show how Winnerod grew from a medieval farm into a fortified noble estate. The name changed from Winderode to Wenderode within two decades of the first written record. Stützmauerreste behind the house suggest the castle stood either at the same time or a little earlier than the farm’s first mention. The manor’s classical style contrasts with the older, less precise remains of the fortifications. All that survives of the castle itself is scattered stonework and earthworks in the field. Visitors find the manor house standing at the edge of the Burgwald forest. The surrounding fields and the gentle slope recall the site’s strategic height. The stone basement of the manor still shows the solid foundations of its earlier purpose. A quiet lane leads past the house to the open farmland where the old church once stood. The area remains peaceful, with only the old walls and the manor’s classical lines to mark the vanished castle.