Burg Schmitthof

Burg Schmitthof stands in the Gleental valley north-west of Lehrbach, a district of Kirtorf in the Vogelsbergkreis. Once a water-filled moated castle, it now sits on dry land after the ditch was filled in. The village of Reisdorf once occupied the site, first mentioned in records around 1300 as ‘Reyssdorff’. By 1427 the village had been abandoned, leaving only the name to mark the spot. The present brick and timber building was erected in 1538 by Georg Freiherr Schenck zu Schweinsberg. The house shows two storeys under a low hipped roof, its ground floor of solid masonry with dressed corner stones and paired windows. Inside, a central hall once warmed the side rooms. A sandstone pointed arch doorway on the north side carries the family coat of arms dated 1538. Three square towers still stand at the corners of the surrounding wall, two of them retaining their upper timber-framed levels. Visitors find a compact courtyard surrounded by the old curtain wall. The main building’s upper storey is half-timbered, its beams arranged in a regular pattern with simple braces. The western gable once held a stone oriel, now gone, but its corbels remain. The former moat has become a grassy hollow, and the whole place feels quiet, as the castle saw no battles. Restored in the late 1970s, it remains in private hands and is recognised as a cultural monument of Hesse.