Schloss Jesberg

Schloss Jesberg stands in Jesberg, a village in the Schwalm-Eder district of northern Hesse. Built in 1723 for Prince Maximilian of Hesse, it served as a summer residence and is also called Maximilianschloss or Maximilianschlösschen. The plain main building has a mansard roof and relates to early 18th-century Kassel palace architecture. Its central section rises above the courtyard and is crowned by a round gable, while the garden front projects on three sides to support a balcony. Two outbuildings once accompanied the house; one survives today. The prince lived there with his wife Friederike Charlotte, known as ‘Prinzessin Max’, whose extravagant lifestyle drew disapproval in both Hessian dynasties. They had four daughters, for whom Maximilian laid out the Prinzessingarten in a nearby wood. After his debts forced his death in 1753, Landgrave Wilhelm VIII bought the property and sold off the rest of the estate. Between 1800 and 1807 it passed to a local citizen before becoming publicly owned and used variously as a prisoner-of-war camp, barracks, courtroom, old people’s home and asylum seekers’ housing. After decades of vacancy and decay, the German Red Cross acquired the building and completed a full restoration in 2006. Today it houses sheltered flats, a community meeting place and a small library. The surviving outbuilding and traces of the former Dutch-style garden remain nearby, while the nearby Burgberg recalls the site’s earlier medieval fortress.