Burg Friedberg

Burg Friedberg stands on a basalt rock in the Wetterau plain, 140 metres above sea level. It covers 3.9 hectares, making it one of Germany’s largest hilltop castles. Beneath the medieval walls lie traces of a Roman fort built under Emperor Vespasian in the 1st century. Excavations have uncovered part of a small bath-house, later incorporated into a modern school basement. The castle’s origins go back to an imperial foundation ordered by Frederick Barbarossa between 1171 and 1180. The fortress was the centre of the imperial Burggrafschaft Friedberg for centuries. About 100 hereditary burgmannen families held office and built their stone houses inside the walls. By the 15th century the castle had its own small state, acquiring half the imperial pawn of the nearby town. A printed police ordinance of 1679 shows the castle’s legal autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire. After 1806 the grand duchy of Hesse took over, but the old staufisch constitution lasted until 1834. Visitors walk through two main gateways: the northern approach with three surviving 14th-century gate towers, and the southern route across a deep moat and drawbridge. The Adolfsturm, built in the 14th century from Taunus quartzite and local basalt, rises 54 metres and bears a weather vane another four metres higher. Inside, two circular viewing galleries offer panoramas across the Wetterau and, on clear days, as far as Frankfurt 30 kilometres away. The tower’s restored spire and four small turrets date from late 19th-century romantic rebuilding.