Langenau Castle () is an old

lowland castle The term lowland castle or plains castle () describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The classification is extensively used in Germany where ...

in the municipality of

Obernhof Obernhof is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to ...

in the county of

Rhein-Lahn-Kreis Rhein-Lahn-Kreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Westerwaldkreis, Limburg-Weilburg, Rheingau-Taunus, Mainz-Bingen, Rhein-Hunsrück, Mayen-Koblenz, and the ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. The site of the fortification was the confluence of the Gelbach and the

Lahn The Lahn () is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the States of Germany, federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). ...

rivers. As a result, the castle is designed as a lowland type, which is unusual for this region. In 1243 the castle was first mentioned in the will of Countess Mechthild of Sayn who left it to the

Archbishopric of Cologne Archbishopric of Cologne may refer to: * Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, the spiritual jurisdiction of the archbishops of Cologne since * Electorate of Cologne, the temporal jurisdiction of the archbishops of Cologne between the mid-13th ce ...

. The archbishop enfeoffed the fortress shortly thereafter to the noble family of Langenau, cousins of the counts of Laurenburg and thus of the

House of Nassau The House of Nassau is the name of a European aristocratic dynasty. The name originated with a lordship associated with Nassau Castle, which is located in what is now Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Nassau in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With t ...

. The family kept the castle as a joint inheritance or ''

Ganerbschaft A ''Ganerbschaft'' (plural: ''Ganerbschaften'' in German), according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs (''Ganerben'') only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corres ...

'' for centuries. The original fortress was turned into a

water castle A water castle, sometimes water-castle, is a castle which incorporates a natural or artificial body of water into its defences.Forde-Johnston (1979), p. 163. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbo ...

on the construction of a dyke. Today, of the 13th century fortification, only the square

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Italian: ''torrione''; Castilian: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries an ...

is left. The remaining fortifications, an

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...

and an eight-metre-high

shield wall A shield wall ( or in Old English, in Old Norse) is a military formation that was common in ancient and medieval warfare. There were many slight variations of this formation, but the common factor was soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder ...

with two

flanking tower A flanking tower is a fortified tower that is sited on the outside of a defensive wall or other fortified structure and thus forms a flank. From the defensive platform and embrasures the section of wall between them (the curtain wall) could b ...

s, show elements of

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

and appeared in the 14th or 15th centuries. Presumably by the middle of the 14th century, when the Langenaus built New Langenau Castle as their main residence, the castle no longer served as a noble seat, but primarily as a base from which to manage the estate. In 1613 the Langenau family died out. The castle changed ownership several times in the years that followed. In the 17th century, a large

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

domestic building was built. In 1696 the mercantile and industrialist family of Marioth purchased the site as their residence and had it converted into a ''

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...

'' in 1698. In 1847, Countess Giech, a daughter of Prussian reform minister, vom und zum Stein, became the new occupant. She had the ''schloss'' converted in 1851 into a hospital and home for children of the poor.

Gallery

File:10RK-Burg Langenau-Toranlage.jpg, Enceinte and gate tower (2009) File:13-Burg Langenau-Innenseite der Toranlage.jpg, Interior of the gate tower (2009) File:11RK-Burg Langenau-mittelalterlicher Bergfried.jpg, Mediaeval bergfried (2009)

Literature

* Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Jens Friedhoff: ''„Mit starken eisernen Ketten und Riegeln beschlossen ...“. Burgen an der Lahn''. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg, 2008, , pp. 88–93. Rhineland Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Rhein-Lahn-Kreis {{Germany-castle-stub