Mittelhof Gilsa

The Mittelhof Gilsa is a former water castle in the village of Gilsa, part of Neuental in northern Hesse. It stands just north of the village church on the northern edge of the settlement. The site was once the ancestral seat of the noble family von und zu Gilsa, who split into two branches in the 16th century and built the neighbouring Oberhof and Unterhof manors. The castle was built in the mid-15th century as a nearly square lowland fortress with four round corner towers and a moat crossed by a drawbridge. During the Thirty Years’ War it was destroyed in 1635. Later the buildings were rebuilt on the old foundations as a farmhouse. The moat was drained in 1730 and the drawbridge replaced by a solid causeway. A gateway was cut through the southern wing, while two timber-framed wings added later were removed again. Today only the solid southern wing with its gateway, the foundations of the south-west tower and the adjoining eastern wing with its timbered upper storey remain. Above the gateway hangs a late-Gothic alliance coat of arms of the von Gilsa and von Schaufuß families. Inside the courtyard stand two carved stones from 1684 commemorating Philipp Leo von und zu Gilsa and his wife Ursula Anna von Oppen. On the east side so-called ‘duck stones’ recall the many ducks that once nested in tree hollows here. After the family died out in 1898 the estate fell into slow decay until a group of craftsmen bought it around 1980 and restored it with great care, winning the state heritage protection prize. The Mittelhof remains a private home and is not open to the public.