Langenau Castle

Langenau Castle is an original lowland castle in the area of the municipality of Obernhof in the Rhein-Lahn district in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The mouth of the Gelbach into the Lahn was chosen as the location for the fortification. The castle is designed as a low-lying castle, which is unusual for the region.

In 1243, the castle was first mentioned in the inheritance of Countess Mechthild von Sayn, who bequeathed it to the Archdiocese of Cologne. The Archbishop shortly thereafter enfeoffed the knightly family of Langenau, relatives of the Counts of Laurenburg and thus of the early House of Nassau, with the fortress. The family kept the castle in their possession as a joint inheritance for centuries.

The original castle could be transformed into a moated castle by a dam. Today, only the square keep in Romanesque architectural style from the 13th century remains as a building component. The other fortifications, a curtain wall and an eight-meter-high shield wall with two flanking towers, show elements of Gothic architecture and were built in the 14th or 15th century. Probably from the middle of the 14th century, when the Langenau family built Neu-Langenau Castle as their new main residence, the castle no longer served as a knight's seat, but primarily as an economic farm.

In 1613, the Langenau family died out. Several owners of the castle changed in the following years. Also in the 17th century, a large half-timbered farm building was built. In 1696, the merchant and industrialist family Marioth acquired the complex as a residence and had it converted into a castle by 1698.

In 1847, Countess Giech, a daughter of the Prussian reform minister vom und zum Stein, became the new owner. In 1851, she had the castle converted into a hospital and rescue home for neglected children.