Burg Haldessen

Burg Haldessen was a lowland castle built in the early 14th century by the Archbishopric of Mainz. It stood on a small flat hill near the village of Oberhaldessen, between the modern districts of Udenhausen and Carlsdorf. Excavations in 1962 confirmed its exact location on a 255-metre mound. The castle played a key part in the territorial struggle between Mainz and Hesse. In 1335 it housed two local knights, three from Twiste, twenty-seven other knights, forty-two squires and twenty-four household servants. Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse captured and destroyed it in 1339, rebuilt it, then lost it again in 1346–47 during the Mainz schism. A peace treaty in 1354 ordered its demolition, but both sides ignored the order. The castle changed hands several more times until it faded from records after 1403. Today only a low mound remains, marked by a single lime tree. The site lies in open countryside between Udenhausen and Carlsdorf. Visitors can walk the quiet field paths and see the small hill where the castle once stood. There are no standing walls, but the flat mound still shows where the tower once rose. The surrounding farmland stretches towards the Reinhardswald, giving a sense of the strategic view the builders once enjoyed.