Top 17 Castles in Landkreis Offenbach

The Schlossgarten Heusenstamm, also known as Herrengarten, is a sprawling parkland that encloses the historic ensemble of the baroque Schönborn Castle, the Hintere Schlösschen, and the Bannturm. Its origins date back to the early 18th century when it was laid out under the von Schönborn family as a strictly symmetrical baroque garden with avenues and sightlines, following the French model. In the course of the 19th century, the area was partially transformed into an English landscape park, giving it a varied character today. The grounds are traversed by the Bieber river and are characterized by old moats and castle ponds that once served for the defense of the castle. Today, the park is a central recreational area and part of the RheinMain regional park. In addition to well-developed walking paths and extensive meadows, it also offers a large playground. Furthermore, the garden serves as the city's most important cultural event space, hosting regular festivals, concerts, and the popular wine festival in the shadow of the historic walls.

The Hintere Schlösschen and the Bannturm form the historical core of Heusenstamm and date back to a medieval moated castle from the 13th century. The Bannturm is the oldest part of the entire complex; it was built as a fortified residential tower made of sandstone and also served as a prison over the centuries. Its current appearance with the large windows was only acquired through renovations in the 19th century. The directly adjacent Hintere Schlösschen was built in the 15th and 16th centuries on the foundations of an even older building. When the Counts of Schönborn later built the magnificent new castle, the Hintere Schlösschen was primarily used for administration and as living quarters for servants. Today, the building has been extensively restored and serves as the town's cultural center: it houses modern event rooms as well as the registry office's wedding chamber and is an integral part of the town hall complex.

You can take a little time to see, marvel, observe, reflect ... in this historical place

Quite ok for a break with a photo opportunity and a short tour.

Around the year 100 AD, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan, a cohort fort was built on the site of today's Seligenstadt market square and parts of today's old town, the Castrum Selgum. The cohort stationed there was called Cohors I Civium Romanorum equitata and was responsible for the security of the Limes section along the Main (also known as the Upper Germanic Limes). When the Limes fell during the Alemanni storms around the year 260 AD, the fort was abandoned and the Romans retreated back behind the Rhine line. The early medieval settlement of Mulinheim superior, Obermühlheim, was built on the ruins of the former fort and on the current monastery grounds in the valley section of the Breitenbach. The oldest known written mention of Seligenstadt, then known as Obermühlheim, goes back to the donation from Ludwig I to Einhard and, according to a copy of the donation document in the Codex Laureshamensis, dated January 11, 815. The town was founded by Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne. After he received the Franconian domain of Obermulinheim as a donation from Ludwig the Pious in 815, he founded a Benedictine monastery here. A Count Drogo is mentioned as a previous owner. The bones of the martyrs Peter and Marcellinus, stolen in Rome, were transferred from the basilica in Steinbach in the Odenwald to Obermühlheim in 828, which thus became a place of pilgrimage. The name of the town soon changed from Obermühlheim to Seligenstadt. The bones of the martyrs were initially kept in the Laurentius Chapel on the estate, but this proved to be too small given the influx of believers. Einhard therefore promptly began building the Einhard Basilica, the landmark of the city on the Lower Main, and, as its first lay abbot, founded a Benedictine abbey as his own monastery. Source: Wikipedia

The palace complex was first confirmed in the middle of the 13th century under Emperor Frederick II. It is located directly on the banks of the Main on the old Mainstrasse, possibly on the site of older buildings or a manorial courtyard, was easily accessible by boat from Frankfurt or Mainz and enabled hunting in the imperial forest of the Upper Spessart. In the 13th century the palace is mentioned as a castrum, and from the 14th century the building is mentioned as a keysirhaus or red castle. A similarity between the preserved columns of the northern window group and the Romanesque House in Seligenstadt built between 1186 and 1187, the Maulbronn Hospital Corridor built between 1170 and 1180, the Landgrave's House on the Wartburg built by around 1170 and the Hôpital Saint-Jean in Angers built in 1175 is cited as a sign that it was built between 1181 and 1188 by Barbarossa. The original building may have been rebuilt with minor changes after a fire, as traces of fire can be seen on the inner masonry and on columns, which are kept in the lapidarium of the Seligenstadt Prelature Museum; some windows may have been replaced under the original overlay arches and the two preserved portals, whose stonemasonry dates back to around 1210–1220, were inserted. Only the front of the palace facing the Main, which was incorporated into the city wall, remained of the complex. The current state of the facade is the result of investigations and restorations in 1883 and 1938. It consists of blocks of red Main sandstone. The building, whose front facing the Main it formed, was rectangular (19 × 46 m), two-storey and covered with slate. The upper floor had a balcony facing the Main, which served as a view of the river and as a connection between the rooms on the upper floor. The ground floor of the building is largely unadorned and consisted of a large, two-aisled hall with central supports and a beamed ceiling. The upper floor, on the other hand, is elaborately designed with several Romanesque door and window openings. From these, the layout of the upper floor can be deduced: at each end, a room is reconstructed that took up the entire depth of the building. The north-western room is interpreted as a banqueting hall, the south-eastern as a bower. In the middle, the bedroom is assumed to be located, as well as possibly smaller rooms. Source: Wikipedia

A beautiful little old town with small cafes and ice cream bars and a Haaner Woog with castle ruins

The “Heusenstammer Castle” consists of two separate buildings. The rear castle dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. The front castle was built in the 17th century.