Burg Niederklein

Burg Niederklein stood in the west of Niederklein, a district of Stadtallendorf, beside the fortified church. The site once protected the road between Amöneburg and Fritzlar as well as the Gleen valley below. A long rectangular tithe barn, possibly used as a hall-house, stood west of the noble residence. A small gate in the church’s defensive wall may have given the local nobility separate access to the church. The lords of Gleen, recorded as Mainz ministerials from 1252, built the tower. The estate appears in records from 1407 when Else von Glene and her husband sold it to the Archbishopric of Mainz. Ten years later Mainz gave the property to the Johannis Stift at Amöneburg, which used it as a refuge during plague years. The tower and courtyard remained in use until after the Thirty Years’ War. Repairs in 1666–67 kept the dwelling tower standing, though a fire in 1697 damaged both church and castle. By the 18th century the buildings were leased out and later sold to the community in 1840. Today no visible remains of the tower survive. Archaeologists have not yet examined the site. A former defensive tower called Schoafeberg, attached to the church wall, was demolished around 1898. The community built a school next to the old castle grounds in the mid-19th century. The church’s walled garden still separates the vanished castle from the churchyard.