Oberellen Castle

Oberellen Castle is a Renaissance castle and manor house of an associated estate in the municipality of Oberellen, now a district of Gerstungen in the Wartburg district. The castle is located in the center of the village next to the church.

In the 12th century, the village of Oberellen came into the possession of the Knights of Goldbach, whose ancestral seat was west of Gotha in the village of the same name on the Nesse. The private property in Elnde was ceded to Reinhardsbrunn Monastery in 1121. A chapel that had long been in the village was designated a provostry by the abbot, and the existing estates were merged into a monastic farm. With the secularization of the Thuringian monasteries, the property passed in 1543 to the Eichsfeld noble family of Hanstein, who took over the village as judicial and feudal lords. The castle, built from 1594 by a branch of the Hanstein family, was erected on the foundations of the farm and inhabited from 1604 by Lippold von Hanstein. Coat of arms plaques from the early 17th century were affixed to the portals of the main house, commemorating members belonging to the Oberellen branch of the Hansteins.

The building complex of the castle, built as a four-wing structure on massive basements, is still partially preserved. The barns, stables, and outbuildings on the west and north sides of the ensemble have been replaced by modern buildings. The main building occupies the east side, and the Oberellen Church forms the southern boundary. South of the church, a residential building known as the "White Castle" was later built by a branch of the Hansteins, suggesting internal family disputes.