Fortress Rüsselsheim

Rüsselsheim Fortress is a former defensive complex in Rüsselsheim am Main. Today, it houses, among other things, the Rüsselsheim City and Industrial Museum, founded in 1976.

A castle (fortified house) of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen, who wanted to secure the position of their southern dominion, was first mentioned in a document in 1399. However, the castle was only expanded into an actual fortress from 1479, when Rüsselsheim fell to the Landgraviate of Hesse under Henry III of Hesse, who then built a fortress with ramparts, moats, and five bastions until 1546.

In the wars of the coming centuries, the fortress played a significant role in the defense of the Hessian territorial state. After the defeat in the Schmalkaldic War, Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous had to surrender the fortress to Emperor Charles V in 1547, who had it razed. It was rebuilt in the years 1560–1563.

French troops captured the fortress in the War of the Palatine Succession in 1688 and blew it up on April 6, 1689. The military significance of the Rüsselsheim Fortress was lost. Its ruins remained without significant use for centuries and served at times as a prison, lazaret, for mushroom cultivation, and as a youth hostel. Only in 1954, when the city of Rüsselsheim acquired the fortress, was it made accessible to the public. Since the 1990s, the fortress has been restored in accordance with monument preservation standards.