Hessenstein Castle

Hessenstein Castle
	Aerial photo of the Jugendburg Hessenstein (2018)
Creation time :	1342-1348
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	rebuilt and modernized
Standing position :	Count
Place:	Ederbringhausen
Geographical location	51 ° 7 '7.3 " N , 8 ° 53' 6.4" E Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '7.3 " N , 8 ° 53' 6.4" E
Height:	327 m above sea level NHN

The Hessenstein Castle is a late medieval castle and today Jugendburg at Ederbringhausen , a district of Vöhl in Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hesse , Germany .

Castle courtyard of Burg Hessenstein with main building (2018)

Geographical location

The hilltop castle is located in a secluded forest location about 1.7 km southeast of Ederbringhausen on a 327 m high, southern mountain spur of the Keseberg ( 431.2 m ), on the northern foothills of which the Keseburg ruins are located. To the south, the Lengelbach flows around Berg und Burg and flows around 500 m west of the castle into the Eder , which joins the Edersee around 7 km further north at Herzhausen . Hikers can reach the castle via the Kellerwaldsteig , the Huguenot-Waldensian Path or the Barbarossaweg .

history

Castle gate and main building (2015)

The castle was built between 1342 and 1348 by Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse on the remains of the old "Silburg" as a replacement for the Keseburg destroyed by his father in 1277 in order to have a permanent seat for his local bailiffs. In 1348, under pressure from the Archbishop of Mainz , the castle was pledged to the Haina Monastery . In the centuries that followed, various castle men, lords and bailiffs resided on Hessenstein; so were z. B. the Gaugreben of Goddelsheim used for a time as ministerial of the monastery Haina by the local abbot as administrator on Hessenstein.

From 1555, after the introduction of the Reformation in Hesse, the castle was the seat of the landgrave office of Hessenstein and was administered by rent masters. In 1821 a district forest association was established at Hessenstein Castle. From 1890 it was the seat of a chief forester and a district forester.

Oldest youth hostel in Hesse

In 1922 the first Hessian youth hostel of the German Youth Hostel Association (DJH) was established at Hessenstein Castle . This makes it one of the oldest youth hostels in Germany. In the 1920s, the district forester based at the castle acted as the hostel father. On a postcard from 1926, the castle is advertised as the "Forester's Apartment with Wandervogel -Herberge". In 1942 the economic wing burned down. It was rebuilt in 1945 as a district forester's farmstead. Through extensive renovation and renovation measures between 1967 and 1970, Hessenstein Castle was expanded into a contemporary youth hostel. The facades of the main building and the gatehouse were largely preserved as they were built by Heinrich the Iron in the 14th century. In 1987 a connecting building was added between the main building and the farm wing. On October 31, 2007, the DJH regional association Hessen closed the youth hostel.

Youth castle with educational facility

After extensive construction work by the state of Hesse in the winter of 2007/2008, in which a modern fire protection system was installed, the NABU Landesverband Hessen, the district craftsmen and the district Waldeck-Frankenberg took over the operation of the new Jugendburg Hessenstein gGmbH on April 1st, 2008 . Since then, the facility has been available again as a youth hostel and conference venue. In 2012, a youth education center was set up at the castle , which offers a variety of school class programs and educational projects on the subjects of nature , handicraft and the Middle Ages . The youth hostel was extensively renovated in winter 2016/2017. The focus of the construction work was on the renovation of the sanitary facilities and the handicapped-accessible expansion of the castle complex.

Todays use

With 123 beds and six day rooms in a rustic castle atmosphere, the Hessenstein Youth Castle is now available to school classes, trainees, children and youth groups as well as families and individual travelers as a youth hostel and conference center in the Kellerwald-Edersee national park region. It has the QMJ certificate from the BundesForums Kinder- und Jugendreisen eV, the seal "GUT DRAUF - move, relax, eat - but like" from the Federal Center for Health Education and is recognized by the Ministry of Social Affairs as a sponsor of free youth welfare in accordance with Section 75 of Book VIII of the Social Code. The Hessenstein is also a "certified educational institution for sustainable development" and an official partner of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. The facility was also recognized by NABU Hessen as a “bat-friendly house”.

The youth education center offers a variety of class trips, daytime offers and holiday camps on the subjects of nature, handicrafts and the Middle Ages. The conceptual focus is on education for sustainable development with the key topics of biodiversity and lifestyle . Children and young people can go on a research trip into biological diversity as "nature explorers" or get to know the life of the goblins of the night at the "bat adventure". In cooperation with the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park and the Nature Conservation Youth NAJU Hessen, the wilderness education project “Forest Scout - Wilderness Expedition”, funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation and the Hessian Nature Conservation Foundation, was carried out from 2008 to 2018 . Further educational cooperations exist with the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park and the Grenzwelten Geopark . The range of tasks of the educational institution also includes the advanced training of BFD people as part of the federal volunteer service in nature conservation.

literature

Georg Dehio : Handbook of German Art Monuments , Hesse I: Gießen and Kassel administrative districts , 2008 edition, ISBN 978-3-422-03092-3 , p. 190.
Karl Hermann Völker (ed.): Ederbringhausen and Burg Hessenstein, pictures from the village history , 2nd supplemented and revised edition 1990, self-published, Burgwald-Wiesenfeld, pp. 23–43.
Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 144.
Reinhard Gutbier: Hessenstein Castle and its structural development up to around 1800. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies, Volume 81/1970, Neumeister-Verlag, Kassel, pp. 89–118.
Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 348.