The Hohenburg ruin is located in the core town of Homberg on the wooded Schloßberg (376.5 m above sea level), a basalt cone rising steeply from the Efzeaue south of the mountain, which is surrounded to the west, south and east by the built-up areas of the city .
Homberg was at the intersection of two historic trade routes, the road from Fritzlar via Homberg to Hersfeld and the Langen Hessen. The location was therefore of great strategic importance.
By whom and when the castle was built is not known. In 1162, however, a "Rentwich von Hohenburg" was first mentioned in a document, this family died out in 1427 with "Simon vom Hohenberg". From around 1190 it was owned by the Landgraviate of Thuringia. The castle was first mentioned in a document in 1246. Together with the city it formed a unit and was of great importance on the old trade route Frankfurt-Leipzig.
In the 13th century it came under Landgrave Heinrich I to the newly created Landgraviate of Hesse. It became the administrative center of the Homburg office. In 1508 the brother of the Hessian Landgrave Ludwig II of Niederhessen, Archbishop Hermann IV of Cologne, owned the castle and had it extensively rebuilt. A bronze plaque that was found during excavation work at the castle bears the inscription: “Herman von Gotzes mercy Erzbyschoff zu Colne, the holy romschyn rich through Ytalia, Ertzcantzler, Elector, Duke of West Valn and Engern, of the Abbey of Paderborn, Administrator A ( nno) 1508 ". The bronze plate is in the Homberg local history museum. It is characterized by remarkable chasing work and is adorned with the archbishop's and landgrave's coat of arms.
From 1605 to 1613, Landgrave Moritz had the castle well, which is 150 meters deep and is one of the deepest wells in Germany, built for 25,000 thalers and the castle was further strengthened.
The Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel initially maintained neutrality until 1631 during the Thirty Years' War. From 1634 the war was carried into Hesse. On July 16, 1636, the city of Homberg was occupied by imperial troops. However, the siege of the castle by General Johann von Götzen with an imperial army of 13,000 men was successfully repulsed. However, a woman (there were around 3,000 refugees at the castle at the time) fell into the well shaft of the castle well, so that the water could no longer be used. With another siege by Götzen's troops on August 3, 1636, the castle garrison had to surrender due to a lack of water supply. An Irish regiment under Colonel Hugh Tirell occupied the castle, which had been partially destroyed in the previous fighting, for 4 months. When the castle and town were withdrawn, the imperial troops burned them down.
Troops from General Peter Melander von Holzappel occupied the destroyed facility in 1647 and had repairs carried out. Sergeant General Carl Rabenhaupt besieged the castle from January 28th to 30th, 1648 and was able to recapture it for the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel. On February 9, 1648 there was another surrender. A little later, the Thirty Years War ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
The heavily destroyed castle was not rebuilt, it fell into disrepair and was partly used as a quarry for the reconstruction of the likewise badly destroyed town of Homberg. Many components of the former castle can still be found in the cityscape today. The castle well was finally backfilled in 1657.
In 1822 the ruin came into the possession of the city of Homberg. From 1881 the Homberg Beautification Association created the park-like design of the Schlossberg. The ruins of the castle have been uncovered, restored and looked after by a castle association since 1936. In the course of the excavation work, plans were developed to build a new castle tower and a memorial hall to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the First World War. The implementation failed when the Second World War broke out.
The plans to build the tower were implemented in the 1950s. This was built from 1952 to 1958 on old foundations in the form of a keep based on a historical model. The tower serves as an observation tower with a view of Homberg and its surroundings. The castle well, which was buried after the Thirty Years' War, was exposed from 1997 to 2001. The costs for this amounted to approx. € 200,000.
There is a restaurant on the grounds of the outer bailey.
The formerly very extensive castle complex had a small outer bailey (Zwinger) with an outer castle gate, a drawbridge over the moat and outer bastions, connected via a gate tower with battlements to the main castle and entrance to the castle chapel. The castle also had a round donjon, a hall with a knight's hall, a well house with a 150 m deep castle well (fourth deepest castle well in Germany), a stables, military accommodation, a gun house, an arsenal, a rifle bay, commandant's house and stair tower. The curtain wall was 1.5 meters thick.
The massive castle tower with a diameter of 11 meters and a height of 14 meters is not part of the historical inventory, but was built as a lookout tower in the style of old keep by the castle mountain community from 1952 to 1958.
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