Katzenelnbogen

Katzenelnbogen gave its name to a county whose possessions reached far beyond the small town beneath its castle. During the fourteenth century the counts played an important part in the territorial politics and castle building of the Middle Rhine. Their ancestral town returned from Nassau control to the family in 1350, and the two branches of the dynasty reunited in 1402.

When the last count died in 1479, the inheritance passed to Heinrich III of Hesse, husband of the heiress Anna. The old castle's appearance subsequently changed dramatically. A fire in 1540 devastated the complex; rebuilding in 1584 and 1613 introduced residential buildings in place of much of the medieval stronghold. A further remodelling followed in 1779. By 1803 the town had passed to Nassau, leaving its successive rulers reflected in both its political allegiance and its altered castle.