Burg Konradsdorf

The Burg Konradsdorf is a small hillside castle built no later than the year 1000. It stands above the Nidder river near Konradsdorf, southwest of Ortenberg in Hesse’s Wetteraukreis. The castle was abandoned in the late 12th century. On its foundations the Konradsdorf monastery was later built, first recorded in 1191. Archaeologists uncovered remains of the original castle beneath the monastery church in 1994–1996. The excavations revealed a square sandstone tower base measuring about 7.60 by 7.80 metres with walls up to 2.70 metres thick. Beneath the church floor lay the foundations of an earlier small church from before the year 1000, set within a graveyard that included the castle tower. The relationship between the early church and the castle remains unclear. By the mid-12th century the castle declined as members of the House of Büdingen built new castles nearby, including the present Ortenberg Schloss. In about 1190, under Hartmann von Büdingen, a ministerial of Emperor Frederick I, the monastery was founded on the site to serve as a family house monastery and burial place. Visitors today see the monastery church standing over the buried castle remains. The church’s north aisle covers the old tower foundations, while the earlier graveyard and small church lie beneath the floor. The site links two centuries of local history in a single view. The quiet surroundings above the Nidder valley offer a sense of how power and faith shifted in the region during the 11th and 12th centuries.