Schönstein Castle

Schönstein castle ruins stand in Gilserberg, Germany. The stronghold was built by the medieval Counts of Ziegenhain.

The hilltop site probably dates to the 1100s. In 1170 and 1177 a Godebracht von Linsingen is recorded as a castellan serving Ziegenhain, and members of his family are associated with construction at nearby Jesberg. The castle occupied a commanding position to control the road through the Gilsa valley and first appears in surviving documents in 1350.

During the 1200s and 1300s Schönstein was involved in regional fighting between Hessian and Mainz interests, acting alongside the castles at Jesberg and Densberg. In 1300 Count Gottfried VI granted the castle as a fief to Hermann von Löwenstein‑Schweinsberg. In 1350 Count Johann I created a new administrative district based at Schönstein which included the villages of Lischeid, Moischeid, Winterscheid, the then inhabited settlement of Gerwigshain, Falkenhain, Frankenhain, Treisbach near Sebbeterode, Schönau and Sachsenhausen. Johann I had the castle enlarged in 1358.

In 1368 the castle and its office were pledged to Gottfried von Linsingen and to Hans and Helwig von Gilsa of Roppershausen, who received permission to improve its defenses. During the Sternerkrieg in 1371 or 1372 Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse laid siege to the site, captured it and ordered its destruction. The castle was rebuilt after this action but in 1399 Hessian forces again took and destroyed it; the rebuild that followed was carried out without the former keep.

In 1406 Counts Gottfried IX and Johann II pawned one third of the castle and its administrative district to Ekkebrecht von Grifte. That pledge was redeemed in 1420 for 160 Gulden by Elisabeth Schenck von Schweinsberg. By an inheritance agreement of Johann II the castle and the county of Ziegenhain passed into the hands of the Landgraves of Hesse in 1450. In 1469, during the Hessian Brother War, mercenaries of Czech origin fighting for Landgrave Ludwig II of Hesse‑Kassel destroyed the castle while it belonged to Landgrave Heinrich III of Hesse‑Marburg.

The site continued to serve as the seat for Hessian administrators of the Schönstein district until 1543, with Otto Hund recorded as the final district official and court days taking place there up to the time of the castle’s ruin. From 1557 the fortress fell into progressive decay. In 1601 residents of Schönau reported that stones taken from the dilapidated castle had been used in the construction of the fortress at Ziegenhain. The remaining fabric was stabilized and secured in 1987 and 1988 by regional forestry and monument preservation authorities.