Burg Jossa

Burg Jossa stands on a spur of the Darsberg, 295 metres above sea level, between Jugenheim and Alsbach in the Odenwald. The ruins sit on a narrow ridge with the Katharinenberg to the south-west and the Bayernhöhe to the north-east. The site was once called Dagsberg before the brothers who built the castle adopted the name Jossa. The brothers were Gebhard II. and Giso IV. of Jossa, sons of Reinhard I. and Agnes, daughter of Konrad II. of Bickenbach. Their inheritance included Jugenheim, Balkhausen and other villages around the Bergstraße. The castle was built between 1290 and 1300 and given to Archbishop Peter of Mainz in 1312. Gebhard and Giso kept it as a fief but had to keep it open to the archbishop’s men. After Gebhard’s death around 1335, the heirs sold parts of the estate to the lords of Erbach. Gisos’s widow and son also sold their share, so the whole district passed to Erbach while remaining a Mainz fief. By 1360 the castle was already falling into ruin and was gradually dismantled for building stone. Today the remains include a recognisable ring-wall about 270 metres long. Inside, the outer wall encloses nearly 5,200 square metres, with a smaller inner area of about 910 square metres. The western side once held a hall and service buildings, the eastern side a stable and a round keep twelve metres high. A double ditch guards the south-eastern approach, and a thick shield-wall stood up to 3.75 metres wide. The lack of a well or cistern may have hastened the castle’s abandonment. Walkers pass the low grassy banks and ditches along well-marked paths through the surrounding wooded hills.