Sababurg

The castle was begun in 1334 and rebuilt as a hunting lodge from 1490, with its main hall finished in 1519, then fell into ruin from the eighteenth. It stands in the Reinhardswald, a forest containing very old oaks and beeches in the Urwald Sababurg reserve, protected since 1907, where trees left from centuries of wood pasture stand as hollow giants. The Grimm connection is an association rather than a source: the Sleeping Beauty tale in their collection came from other informants, but the castle's ruined state in a deep forest fitted the story so well that the link took hold locally in the nineteenth century. A hotel operated in it for decades and closed in 2018, when renovation works began.

History

Building of the castle, then called the Zappenburg, began on 19 April 1334 for the Bishopric of Mainz, to guard pilgrims to nearby Gottsbüren, where an uncorrupted body of Christ was said to have been found in 1330; after Mainz was defeated in 1346 it was divided between Hesse and Paderborn, described as abandoned in 1455, and passed wholly to Hesse in 1462. In 1490 Landgrave William I built a hunting lodge on the old walls, for 300 years a venue for festivals, with a water pipe and a palas begun in 1508 and finished under Philip I in 1519. The state of Hesse restored the ruins from 1957, a hotel opened in 1960, the first civil wedding venue in Germany outside a town hall was set up here in 1987, and since 2018 extensive renovation has limited visits (Wikipedia, Sababurg).

The main sights

• The ruined lodge - towers and walls of a sixteenth-century hunting castle.
• The Urwald Sababurg - ancient hollow oaks in a reserve protected since 1907.
• The Reinhardswald - a large old forest surrounding the hill.
• The tale association - a nineteenth-century link rather than a documented source.

When to go

April to October; the ancient oak reserve is a short drive and is at its best in autumn. The castle's future use has been uncertain since the hotel closed.

Before you go

The hotel closed in 2018 and access arrangements have varied since. It is a ruin, not a furnished castle. The Sleeping Beauty link is not documented.

Nearby

Kassel lies south; the fairy tale route runs through.

Key facts