Questenberg Castle

Questenberg Castle is the ruin of a medieval feudal castle on the Burgberg (Castle Hill) north of the village of Questenberg in the Mansfeld-Südharz district in Saxony-Anhalt. The keep, the curtain wall, two cellars, and a wall of the palas are preserved and freely accessible.

The hilltop castle was built between approximately 1200 and 1250, presumably by the Counts of Beichlingen, and entrusted for defense to a knightly family named after it, the von Questenbergs. From 1305, the Counts of Hohnstein were the owners. In 1349, the castle was first directly mentioned as "hus zcuo Questinberg".

The knight Heinrich von me Rade and his brothers received Questenberg and seven associated villages as a fief. In 1383, the Counts of Hohnstein sold the property to Landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia. The Thuringian Landgraves continuously used the castle and lordship as a pawn object. From 1424 to 1430, Landgrave Friedrich I had pledged the "castle" and office of Questenberg for 450 marks of silver to Dietrich von Witzleben and his son Friedrich. In 1430, the Landgraves sold the lordship to the Counts of Stolberg. As under the Thuringians, the property also served the Stolbergs primarily for pawn transactions. Initially, the castle was pledged to the noble Knaut family. From 1468 to 1486, the pledge went to the Altmark family von Bertkow and then again to the Knauts until 1670. From 1645, the Stolberg-Wernigerode line was the liege lord.

In 1718, the property passed by purchase to the Counts of Stolberg-Rossla. The castle had its last military use in 1633, when it served as quarters for a company for war commissioner Valenthin Rothmehler against the Harzschützen. Already during the Peasants' War, the castle was described as desolate. By 1649, the castle was already so dilapidated that only a few cellars were still usable.