The Felsburg and the (vice) counts of Felsberg were first mentioned in 1060, the town of Felsberg (Velisberc) was mentioned in a document in 1090.
The Romanesque substructure of the castle from the 11th century is located on a columnar basalt cone above the town of Felsberg on the old salt road that led from Bad Sooden-Allendorf on the Werra into the Ruhr area. The Ederfurt near Felsberg was strategically important. The castle was the seat of the Velisberc dynasty, who lived in the castle from 1090 to 1286, but then withdrew to their possessions in the Hessisch Lichtenau area and soon died out.
In 1238, the castle and town of Felsberg first came to the Landgraviate of Thuringia, but soon afterwards to the Landgraviate of Hesse as a result of the separation of Hesse from Thuringia after the death of Heinrich Raspe. The castle was then the seat of a number of landgrave officials. In 1367 landgrave knights, led by the knight Konrad Spiegel zum Desenberg, defeated a force of the Hersfeld abbot Berthold II von Völkershausen in the Eder lowlands near Altenburg. In 1375 the landgrave ministerial and governor of Lower Hesse, Friedrich von Felsberg, lived in the castle; two years earlier, the landgrave had pledged the tax revenue of the city of Felsberg to him. From 1333 onwards, Landgrave Heinrich II, "the Iron", expanded the rock castle, and the fortifications were expanded again in 1387, 1388 and 1392. In the Mainz-Hessian War of 1427, Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse led his contingent against the Mainz general Gottfried von Leiningen, who devastated the area of ??Gudensberg, Felsberg and Melsungen with 600 riders from Fritzlar. Ludwig defeated him decisively on the Großenengliser Platte between Fritzlar and Großenenglis and again near Fulda, although the Archbishop of Mainz, Konrad III. von Dhaun, who in the meantime had taken over the command of his army himself, and thus forced Kurmainz to the peace of Frankfurt.
From 1455 to 1458 the alchemist Klaus von Urbach lived on the Felsburg; Landgrave Ludwig I had brought him to make gold. From 1511 the mother of Philip the Magnanimous, Landgravine Anna, lived in the castle. Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel held his last parliament at the castle in 1626 before his abdication. The rock castle survived the Thirty Years' War almost unscathed, but then slowly fell into disrepair. In 1762 the rock castle was conquered by Hessian hunters under Major von Linsingen during the Seven Years' War and shortly afterwards destroyed by French troops.
The hilltop castle has an almost trapezoidal floor plan. On the north and west side there are late Gothic kennels with key notches from the 14th century. The entrance with gate also dates from the 14th century. The goal is reinforced by two flank towers and equipped with two machikulis at the base, which enabled the opponent to be defended on the ground.
In the middle of the castle near the northern wall is the 29.5 m high keep with a narrow tower (butter barrel tower), which dates back to 1388 in its current form. Originally it was only 15 m high, but was later increased by 14.5 m as part of additional fortification of the castle complex. A roofed battlement was attached at the point of return to the superstructure of the tower. The current entrance was only later broken through the three and a half meter thick walls. The entrance leads to the tower dungeon and via inside steep wooden ladders to the two viewing levels on the circumferential battlement at a height of about 15 m and to the closed level at about 26 m in the top of the tower, which allows a view of the surroundings through four small windows.
The castle chapel dedicated to St. Pancras stands on the south wall. In 1544, Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous stored 297 tons of black powder in the chapel. The powder magazine was used for 300 years and only given up in the time of the electorate.
The Burgverein Felsberg 1885 e.V. leased the castle from the Prussian state. From 1950 safety and repair work was carried out. A castle museum has been set up in the castle chapel, and civil weddings take place here in the summer months. A carillon financed by donations was installed above the entrance door of the chapel in 2006. Today the castle belongs to the State of Hesse and is looked after by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse.
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