Burg Holdersberg

Burg Holdersberg stands on a rocky spur of the Nack ridge north of Niederauroff in Idstein, Hesse. The spur rises seventy to a hundred metres above the valley floor and is surrounded by steep slopes on three sides. A single gentle slope on the east side connects it to the rest of the ridge. The site is an early medieval spur castle, first noticed only in 1949 and still lacking any written records or finds. Experts place the uncompleted fortification in the Frankish period because of nearby finds. Its walls and ditches run for about four hundred metres along the ridge, with the strongest defences at the eastern approach. A small rectangular hollow in the rock inside the main enclosure may have held a cellar or tower base. The whole layout suggests a fortified mustering point rather than a settlement. Visitors walk along the ridge to the Phillipsruhe lookout at the western tip. The main rampart is still up to two metres high in places, with a broad ditch in front. A smaller outer rampart and ditch lie two hundred metres east, while a short curved forewall guards the eastern saddle. The site is quiet woodland, with no modern structures and only the earthworks marking the past.