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Melsungen is a medieval town and a climatic health resort in the Schwalm-Eder district of northern Hesse.

The city was first mentioned in a document in 802 as Milisunge. The first settlements were probably already in the Hallstatt period (9th – 4th century BC).

In the course of its history, Melsungen changed hands several times. So gave Emperor Otto III. in 973 parts of his possessions in Elesenge in pago Hassim, including a military building, a Dietrat von Melsungen. In 1040 Count Dietrich bequeathed his Melsung property to the Fulda monastery. Heinrich Raspe II. (Around 1130 to around 1155/57), Count von Gudensberg from the house of the Thuringian Ludowingers, as bailiff of Hersfeld Abbey, managed the estrangement of Melsungen from Hersfeld's possession and left the strategically important Fulda crossing of the road from Gudensberg to Thuringia build a small castle ("burgus Milsungen"). The place was of particular importance because it was at the crossroads of three important trade routes: the "Sälzerweg" (west-east), the "Nürnberger Straße" (north-south), and the "Through the long Hessen".

The archbishops of Mainz and the Landgraves of Thuringia and later the Landgraves of Hesse fought the city most fiercely. In 1189/90 Archbishop Konrad I of Mainz bought the castle and town for 350 marks from the Ludowinger Landgraves of Thuringia and granted the town town charter; The coat of arms also comes from this period. Just a few years later, in 1193/94, the town and castle were destroyed in a feud between Mainz and Thuringia, but immediately rebuilt by the landgraves because of their important location, this time as the property of the landgraves. In the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession (1247-1264), as a result of which Melsungen came to the Landgraviate of Hesse, the castle was again at least partially destroyed, but also restored.

The originally Romanesque parish church was converted into a Gothic hall church in 1350. In 1465 the place already had about 950 inhabitants. In 1554 a fire destroyed large parts of the city center. Only a few buildings survived the fire, as almost all the houses were made of half-timbered houses. After this disaster, the town hall, which is still in use today, was built, an architectural jewel in half-timbered style. In 1596 a massive stone bridge was completed over the Fulda, the so-called Bartenwetzerbrücke.

Landgrave Wilhelm IV and his father, Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous, built a hunting lodge directly outside the city wall in 1552–1557, in the immediate vicinity of the old castle, which was demolished due to dilapidation and made way for the stables completed in 1577. From 1627 to 1632 this Moritz Castle served the scholar of Hessen-Kassel as a temporary residence after he had abdicated as Landgrave and retired to Eschwege. After his death, the palace and the stables were used as a garrison for landgraves and electoral cavalry from 1733 to 1825. From 1825 to 1867 it was the seat of the Hessian Forest Academy. After the Prussian annexation of the Electorate of Hesse, it became an administrative building. During the Second World War there was a prison camp for British officers in the castle and in the so-called Kreisgut in Elbersdorf. Today the building is the seat of the district tax office and the judicial authority.

During the Thirty Years 'War, the Seven Years' War and during the French rule from 1806 to 1813, the city suffered repeated occupation and damage. In 1813, after Jérôme Bonaparte's abdication as King of Westphalia, General Chernyshev's Russian troops defeated those of the French General Bastineller near Melsungen.

From 1821 to 1974 Melsungen was the administrative seat of the Melsungen district. By merging the districts of Melsungen, Fritzlar-Homberg and Ziegenhain in 1974 to form the Schwalm-Eder district, the responsible administrative center has been in the town of Homberg (Efze) ever since. Melsungen is one of the main places of the Protestant Althessian church.

Source: German Wikipedia, translated

Address and Hours Available to the Public: Bartenwetzerbrücke Melsungen Admission Fee (if any): no Interactive Features: no Website for more information: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   05/29/2023 Harald visited it