Arnstein

Schloss Arnstein stands on a narrow ridge above the Karlsbach stream in the Werra-Meißner district of Hesse. The site began as a late-medieval castle built in the 12th century by Arnold of Berlepsch to guard the border between Thuringia and Mainz. After passing through the hands of the Rusteberg family and back to the Berlepsches, the fortress was destroyed and rebuilt several times. In 1600 the old keep was demolished and a three-storey manor house erected, only to be wrecked during the Thirty Years War. The present building is a two-storey rectangle of roughly cut stone with corner quoins and a baroque doorway. A symmetrical courtyard and stables flank the house on the north side, and two small pavilions from the early 17th-century rebuilding stand at the corners of the courtyard. A terraced garden was added around 1804 when the manor was restored after heavy damage in the Seven Years War. The castle ridge drops steeply to the west and south, where the railway lines to Halle, Göttingen and Bebra run in deep cuttings. To the east the ground falls away to the confluence of the Karlsbach with the Werra. The entire complex remains in private ownership and is not open to the public.