The Castle at Gelnhausen

This is the visitor’s center and entrance to the castle grounds in Gelnhausen. The castle is surrounded by a river mote outside of town.

Wikipedia:
The Imperial Palace of Gelnhausen , also known as Barbarossaburg, dates back to Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa “red beard”), like the neighboring town of Gelnhausen, founded in 1170. The Imperial Palace served to expand and secure the imperial possessions in the Wetterau and on the Via Regia between Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig by the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Despite its ruinous state, it is considered the best-preserved palace complex of the Hohenstaufen period because of the almost exclusively original building fabric.

The complex is located – together with a settlement of the castle guards– on an island in the Kinzig below the town of Gelnhausen, which is located on the northern slope of the valley. This moated castle has a polygonal floor plan and occupies the southeastern end of the former island. It was protected from the rest of the island by an additional moat in front of the gate building. Three bridges led to the island: in the northwest the connection to the town of Gelnhausen, in the northeast the connection to the upper Kinzig valley and in the south to the road to Altenhaßlau.

The complex was part of a network of neighbouring palaces in Frankfurt, Friedberg, Wetzlar, Treburand Seligenstadt, which secured the area of the Wetterau.

Inside the visitor’s center–here is a model of the town of Gelnhausen as it was in 1200, with the cathedral in the middle of town and the Kinzig River just outside the town’s walls.

We learned the chronology of the town’s history.

Wooden pylons from the river help to date when things were built.

Now to the castle–

We climbed up into the upper levels of the castle tower.

The rain gutter systems were really interesting. What felt like tin was molded over the tops of the ruin walls to help preserve them.

There was a park (backyard) inside the castle walls. It was peaceful and beautiful, with large old trees and an old well.

This is where the added stairs came out on top.

This castle was like a vacation home for the rich and famous in their day. They’d come here to relax and enjoy the cool river breezes. I can see why. It was peaceful and beautiful.