Felsburg

Felsburg stands on a steep basalt cone rising 40 metres above the Eder Valley in the town of Felsberg. The castle’s foundations reach back to Chatti times, when a wooden lookout guarded the salt route from Bad Sooden-Allendorf to the Ruhr. First mentioned in 1060 as Velisberc, it became the seat of the Megin counts who held power until 1253. During the 12th and 13th centuries the Archbishop of Mainz built Heiligenberg Castle nearby to challenge the landgraves of Thuringia and Hesse. After 1238 the counts left, and the castle passed to Hesse, where it served as an administrative centre and later as a widow’s residence for Landgravine Anna. The castle’s defences were repeatedly strengthened, most notably in 1333 under Landgrave Henry II. The 29.5-metre keep, raised in 1388, still dominates the ruins and offers two viewing platforms reached by wooden ladders. A 14th-century gate flanked by two towers and machicolations guards the entrance, while the castle chapel of Saint Pancras once stored 297 barrels of gunpowder for 300 years. The only other surviving medieval structure is this chapel, which now houses a small museum. Visitors walk along late Gothic outer baileys with keyhole loopholes and climb to the keep’s top level for views across the valley. The restored cellar beneath the chapel hosts summer weddings, and a 2006 carillon rings above the entrance. The Burgverein Felsberg, which has cared for the site since 1885, continues to organise conservation work. A stone wall-walk links the keep to the chapel, and the surrounding basalt cone remains a landmark in the Eder landscape.