It stands on a basalt knoll and is surrounded by a protected elm forest.
The upper castle was probably built around the middle of the 13th century by Konrad von Hebel at a strategically important point on the road from Hersfeld to Fritzlar, Gudensberg and Kassel. It was first mentioned in 1250 as Valkenberc in a document from Count Gottfried I von Ziegenhain , in which Konrad von Hebel is listed as the first witness. Around 1270, the descendants of Konrad, beginning with his son Otto I, adopted the surname “von Falkenberg”, while Konrad's brother Heinrich, who continued to live in Hebel, kept the name “von Hebel”. The Falkenberg branch of the family divided in the 14th century with the three sons of Otto I into the three lines of Falkenberg, Densberg and Herzberg.
In 1309, Johann and Konrad von Falkenberg gave their own castle and the villages of Falkenberg, Uttershausen, Hebel and Mardorf to Landgrave Johann von Niederhessen as a fief and then received these goods back from him as a fief. Subsequently, the Falkenberg family tried by tactical action not to be wiped out in the disputes between Kurmainz and the Landgraviate of Hesse. The lower castle was therefore hersfeld's fiefdom of the lords of lever. On the other hand, the scholastic Hermann von Gruna and the Fritzlar canon Hermann von Falkenberg, the knight Johann von Falkenberg, and the noblemen Konrad Hebel and Thilo Hebel became hereditary castle men of the nearby Mainz city of Fritzlar in 1321. For this purpose, the Falkenberg and Hebel families made their Falkenberg Castle available to the Archbishop of Mainz as an open house. In 1322 the Lords of Falkenberg renewed their agreement with Archbishop Matthias. The Mainz official and castle man Johann Gruszing von Falkenberg reopened Falkenberg Castle in 1336 to the Mainz archbishopric administrator Balduin of Luxembourg. Likewise, the noblemen Tile (Thilo) and Hermann von Falkenberg renewed this opening obligation in 1338. In the same year, however, the Falkenbergers were enfeoffed by the Landgrave of Hesse with the villages of Rockshausen, Wolfershausen, Beisheim and Kleinbeisheim; in return they had to undertake to open their castle to the landgrave against all enemies, with the exception of Mainz.
In 1347, the Hessian Landgrave Heinrich II insisted on feudal lordship over the castle and finally managed to get Archbishop Gerlach of Mainz to undertake not to use the castle militarily against the Landgraviate of Hesse. In 1354 Archbishop Gerlach formally ceded the castle to Hesse.
In 1354 Johann Gruszing von Falkenberg pledged half of the Jesberg Castle further south-west, which he himself held as a pledge for the Mainz ore monastery, to his relative, the knight Thile von Falkenberg. Archbishop Gerlach then called Johann Gruszing to Densberg, where he partially rebuilt Densberg Castle in 1355, albeit against the will of Landgrave Heinrich. In 1356 Archbishop Gerlach showed understanding that Thile and Hermann von Falkenberg could no longer support him with their castle, as they had lost it to the landgrave while serving the archbishopric.
In 1358 Archbishop Gerlach settled a dispute between the brothers Otto and Johann Gruszing von Falkenberg on the one hand and Thile von Falkenberg on the other. This family dispute escalated, however, and in 1358 acts of war were documented in the area of ??Falkenberg Castle.
In 1359 Johann Gruszing von Falkenberg was commissioned to finally build a castle for Archbishop Gerlach in Densberg.
In 1362, numerous complaints were filed with the archbishop and the landgrave by Burg Löwenstein, Burg Falkenberg and Burg Kogelberg. In June 1364 Archbishop Gerlach's constant attempts were finally successful. Heinrich von Hanstein occupied Falkenberg Castle in the service of the Archbishop. However, he behaved selfishly and drove out the Mainz castle man Konrad IV von Falkenberg and his servants. Thus, the castle was again not in the possession of the archbishop.
The dispute between the Landgrave and the Archbishop over Falkenberg Castle was negotiated again in August 1364 with no result. In May 1365 Archbishop Gerlach demanded from Landgrave Heinrich that Johann Gruszing von Falkenberg should help him get his castle back, because this agreement had been reached in 1354.
In the Sternerbund in 1372/74, the Falkenbergers again joined an alliance directed against Landgrave Heinrich, and their influence was considerably strengthened during this time through further appointments and leanings from Mainz. In 1374 Werner II. Von Falkenberg was made Oberamtmann in Mainz for Hesse, Thuringia and the Eichsfeld. On September 29, 1391 four Falkenberger founding members of the Benglerbund.
Konrad von Falkenberg, Werner's son, who was also called "Kunzmann",was involved on June 5, 1400 in the assassination of Duke Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, who was proposed as a candidate for king at the Frankfurt Fürstentag. Friedrich was on his way home from Frankfurt to Braunschweig when Count Heinrich VII von Waldeck, Konrad ("Kunzmann") von Falkenberg, Friedrich III. von Hertingshausen and a knight von Löwenstein ambushed him and killed him in a scuffle near what is now the village of Kleinenglis.
The castle, in which the Falkenberg, Hebel, Holzsadel, Riedesel and Urff families now owned shares, suffered considerable damage during this period of feuds and wars and was repaired and reinforced between 1437 and 1454. It fell into disrepair after the Falkenbergs inherited the Falkenberg Castle, built by the von Hebel family around 1510 about 500 m further south in Falkenberg in 1521, when the von Hebel family died out, and moved there. After 1621 the castle was demolished.
Of the castle built on a steep mountain cone, only the square substructure of the residential tower-like keep and the overgrown surrounding walls of the core castle on the northeast side are preserved. The ruin cannot be entered.
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