Burg (Homburg, Gössenheim)

Burg, located in Homburg, Gössenheim, Germany, was erected by the Lords of Homburg who served the Bishopric of Würzburg.

The site first appears in a surviving record from 1170, which names a castellan, Dietrich von Hohenberg. A later tradition credits a foundation between 1028 and 1031 to Reinhard von Hohenberg of Burg Adolphsbühl, son of Arnold von Hohenstein, but that founding story cannot be proven and is considered a later invention; inscription stones once cited in support of the early date are no longer present.

The castle occupied a frontier position among the Bishopric of Würzburg, the Counts of Rieneck, the Counts of Henneberg and the Imperial Abbey of Fulda. A scion of the family, Dietrich von Homburg, served as Bishop of Würzburg from 1223 to 1225, showing the family’s close ties to the church administration.

The male line of the Hohenberg family ended in 1381 with Dietrich. His daughter Christine and her husband, Konrad IV von Bickenbach, inherited the Hohenberg estates and thereby brought the castle into the Bickenbach family, whose principal seat was Clingenburg. In 1469 the Bickenbachs sold these former Hohenberg holdings to the Bishopric of Würzburg, represented at the time by Prince-Bishop Rudolf II von Scherenberg, Duke of Franconia. In 1492 Burg became the administrative seat for the district called Homburg an der Werren and an official known as an Amtmann was posted there.

The castle was not harmed during the Peasants’ War of 1525. A fire in the manor house in 1680 began a long period of decline for the buildings. The site remains a ruin, and in October 2021 the standing remains were used as a location for a music video by the medieval-rock band Feuerschwanz.