Bellnhausen Castle

The castle ruin of Bellnhausen is located in the Bellnhausen district of the municipality of Gilserberg in northern Hesse's Schwalm-Eder district. Its remains, minor wall remnants and parts of the moat, are situated in the southwest of the park belonging to the Bellnhausen estate.

Towards the end of the 13th century, the local noble lords of Bellnhausen built a small motte-and-bailey castle (Motte) on an earth mound surrounded by a moat. In 1351, they enfeoffed Belnhus to the Counts of Ziegenhain and received it back as a castle fief; a new enfeoffment occurred in 1405. Around 1432, Engelbrecht von Bellnhausen sold his share (one quarter) of Bellnhausen Castle with all appurtenances to Count Johann II of Ziegenhain; this share fell to the Landgraviate of Hesse after Johann's death in 1450. In 1556, the Lords of Bellnhausen are last documented, and the remaining three quarters of Bellnhausen Castle and Estate came by inheritance to Reinhard Schenk, who in 1564 also acquired the former Ziegenhain quarter with Landgravial-Hessian permission. From 1623, the Bellnhausen estate was then enfeoffed to Dietrich von Werder and from 1671 to 1752 to the Lords of Baumbach.

The castle complex is already mentioned as dilapidated in the 17th century. In the 18th or early 19th century, it was demolished due to structural decay.