Top 20 Castles around Usingen

Beautiful small and well-preserved old town center with many beautiful buildings and of course the castle ruins.

A visit to Altweilnau should include the ascent to Burgberg, including climbing the tower. You will be rewarded with a very beautiful view over the village and the surrounding area.

Very nice little place

In 1170, Kransberg was built as one of the first stone castles by the Staufers as part of a defensive chain Friedberg-Kransberg-Königstein-Kronberg to defend against the Limburg bishops. The keep is the only and oldest element of the entire complex that has been preserved from this period. The first separate written mention of the castle dates back to 1220. In 1310 the male line of the von Cransperk family died out and the castle went to the Lords of Falkenstein. 123 years later, in 1433, the castle fell to the Lords of Eppstein and the intermediate building was added. From 1522 to 1533 the castle briefly belonged to the Lords of Königstein and then became the property of the Counts of Stolberg. As a result of the peace in 1590, the complex came into the possession of the Archbishop of Mainz. The residential extension to the main building was built. In 1854, Count Hugo Waldbott sold the property to the Duchy of Nassau. This became Prussian after the lost war against Prussia in 1866. In 1875 the von Biegeleben family bought the property and completely renovated it. The castle now became known as Cransberg Castle. In 1920, Mrs. von Scheitlein bought the property. In 1939 the castle was confiscated by the Nazi regime and again fundamentally expanded and renovated as part of the Adlerhorst complex. The underground bunker, the knight's hall and the garages were built during this time until Kransberg Castle was captured by the American armed forces in 1945. From 1945 onwards, the British armed forces used the complex and operated the Camp Dustbin interrogation center there, where, compared to Camp Ashcan, the top scientific, technical and armaments organizations of the Nazi regime, Albert Speer, Wernher von Braun, Hermann Oberth, Karl-Otto Saur, Hans Kehrl, Fritz Thyssen, Hermann Röchling and others were arrested and questioned. In the summer of 1946, the first conference in world history on biological weapons took place here. As a result, there were changing occupancies, always by military users. The Gehlen organization, the forerunner of the Federal Intelligence Service, also worked here from 1947 to 1961, primarily in the field of telecommunications intelligence. Units of the Bundeswehr and the American armed forces also used the facility.

Beautiful and historically important tour destination and a great place for the break.

The construction history of the former castle and today's palace began in the 12th century. Today's appearance is strongly influenced by the modifications from 1875 onwards. However, the castle only gained national importance during and after the Second World War. During the Nazi era it became part of the bunkers of the so-called Führer Headquarters Adlerhorst. After World War II, various British, American and German military institutions were based here until 1990. The subsequent civilian change of ownership through restitution, sale, foreclosure, renewed sales have so far not brought any sustainable use and meanwhile the building fabric is increasingly decaying.

What fell victim to agriculture elsewhere is well preserved in the forests of the Hessian Taunus. Rome's military fortifications, such as the Kapersburg near Rosbach vor der Höhe, give an idea of the Limes in late antiquity. At that time they were guard and scout posts, today they are cultural monuments within the UNESCO World Heritage "Borders of the Roman Empire".

Beautiful ways! Idyllic place.