Hildenburg

The Hildenburg is the ruined remains of a medieval spur castle standing above the tiny hamlet of Hillenberg in Unterfranken. It crowns a steep, cone-shaped hill at 658 metres, overlooking the Baringau valley near Roth vor der Rhön. The site once commanded views across a wide stretch of countryside and gave its name to the local noble family. Today only fragments remain: parts of the bergfried and the massive ring wall still enclose the farmsteads of Hillenberg. A local cleric reported that the tower was pulled down in the mid-19th century. The Hildenburg’s history reaches back to the 8th century, when an aristocrat called Hiltiburg donated lands to Fulda abbey around 824. By the 12th century the family had become known as the Hildenburgers; Cunemund appears in a charter of 1116, and Albrecht joined the Third Crusade in 1188. The line ended in 1217–28 with Adalbert III, whose daughter Adelheid married Otto III of Bodenlaube. Otto later gave many of the family estates to Würzburg bishopric and sold the rest in 1230. The castle became the seat of a prince-bishop’s administrative office, which remained there until the 16th century. Visitors find the ruins set within the farm buildings of Hillenberg. A few stretches of curtain wall and the base of the great tower still stand among the outbuildings. Local legend speaks of hidden passages beneath the hill, ghostly processions and a white lady, as well as a buried treasure in the cellars. The surrounding upland landscape offers wide views over the Rhön hills.