Burg Schweinsberg

Burg Schweinsberg stands on a small basalt cone in the former town of Schweinsberg, now part of Stadtallendorf in central Hesse. Built in the 13th century by Guntram von Schweinsberg, a castle man for the Landgrave of Thuringia, it began as a modest stronghold. The family of Schenck zu Schweinsberg held the estate after marrying into the Merlau line. By the late 15th century the castle had been greatly enlarged with a massive outer wall, three round towers and the Hexenturm. A rectangular forecourt with its own round defence tower was added in front of the main house, the Kemenate, completed between 1459 and 1497. The Thirty Years War damaged parts of the defences, and in 1646 Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth ordered the fortifications demolished. The castle was left in ruins until 1852, when Moritz Schenck zu Schweinsberg rebuilt the Kemenate in the neo-Gothic style under architect Friedrich Lange. The romantic garden was laid out at the same time and described enthusiastically by Georg Landau. Today the two surviving buildings show the castle’s transformation from medieval fortress to 19th-century Romantic residence. Visitors find the restored Kemenate and Fähnrichsbau converted into seven private flats, two of which remain in the hands of the Schenck family. The outer ramparts belong to a Schenck foundation, keeping the family linked to the site for more than 780 years. The forecourt with its round tower still stands intact, offering a quiet view of the surrounding countryside.