Otzberg Castle

Otzberg Castle
castrum Othesberg Veste Otzberg
Hering
Otzberg Castle seen from the southeast
Otzberg Castle
Coordinates	49°49′11″N 8°54′39″E
Type	hill castle
Code	DE-HE
Height	367 m above sea level (NN)
Site information
Condition	Preserved with the exception of the barracks and cabinet
Site history
Built	First recorded in 1231
Garrison information
Occupants	ministeriales

Otzberg Castle (Template:Lang-de) in the German state of Hesse is a medieval castle on the summit of the Otzberg in the Odenwald forest at a height of 367 m above NN. On its northern slopes is the village of Hering, which grew out of the lower ward or castellan's settlement. The history of castle and village is therefore closely interwoven.

History

The region around the Otzberg probably belonged to the territory that King Pippin gifted in 766 A.D. to Fulda Abbey, together with Groß-Umstadt.

Otzberg Castle was probably built in the late 12th/early 13th century. At this time, Abbot Marquard I of Fulda secured the abbey estates and built castles that were visible from a long way as a sign of his influence.

...Here is a site for a castle…

He transferred the castle to Conrad of Hohenstaufen, brother of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, as vogt. Conrad was Count Palatine of the Rhine.

The castrum Othesberg was first mentioned in the records in 1231. In this document the Archbishop of Mainz, Siegfried III, also the overseer of Fulda Abbey, guaranteed to Count Palatine Otto II the arrangement agreed in the previous year, the details of which are unknown.

In 1244 the castellanos de odesbrech are mentioned for the first time: the castellans or Burgmannen of Otzberg Castle. The fortifications must have been sufficiently developed that five castellans and their servants were able to occupy it. The castellans built houses in the village of Hering, so-called "castellan's houses" or Burgmannenhäuser. Of these only parts of the house owned by Gans of Otzberg have survived.

In the early 14th century, the resources of Fulda Abbey ran out so, in 1332, Prince-Abbot Henry VI of Hohenberg enfeoffed Otzberg Castle and the Fulda part of Umstadt for 4,600 pounds of Heller to Werner of Anevelt and Engelhard of Frankenstein, who carried out building work at Otzberg to the tune of 200 pounds.

In 1374 Fulda redeemed the estate again, but enfeoffed in the same year Otsperg die burg ("Otzberg the castle"), Heringes die stat darundir ("Hering the town below it") and half of Umstadt for 23,875 guilders to Ulrich of Hanau, who also carried out work on the castle, for 400 guilders.

In 1390 the abbey sold Otzberg and Hering and the half of Umstadt with the Hanau fief, which had meanwhile increased in value to 33,000 guilders, to Count Palatine Rupert II.

• Buildings of Otzberg Castle
• 
  The Otzberg - north side
• 
  Gatehouse to the castle
• 
  Gatehouse to the exit
• 
  Well house
• 
  The bergfried
• 
  Commandant's house
• 
  Barracks/cabinet room
• 
  "Korporalshaus"
• 
  "Korporalshaus" and palas
• 
  The palas
• 
  South side of the palas

Literature

• Wolfram Becher: Name und Ursprung der Burg Otzberg. In: Der Odenwald. Zeitschrift des Breuberg-Bundes 26/1, 1979, pp. 3–26.
• Thomas Biller: Burgen und Schlösser im Odenwald. Ein Führer zu Geschichte und Architektur. Schnell und Steiner, Regensburg, 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1711-2, pp. 189–192.
• Thomas Steinmetz: Zur Frühgeschichte der Burg Otzberg. In: Der Odenwald. Zeitschrift des Breuberg-Bundes. 51st annual issue (2004), Heft 2, ISSN 020-6360, pp. 43−57.
• Axel W. Gleue: Otzberg Burg-Festung-Kaserne. Otzberg, 2003.
• Rudolf Knappe: Mittelalterliche Burgen in Hessen: 800 Burgen, Burgruinen und Burgstätten. 3rd edn. Wartberg-Verlag. Gudensberg-Gleichen, 2000. ISBN 3-86134-228-6, pp. 540−542.
• Schlösser, Burgen, alte Mauern. Herausgegeben vom Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden, 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0, pp. 287–289.

External links

• Otzberg Castle at burgenwelt.de
• Otzberg Museum
• DFG project Renaissance Palaces in Hesse