Around Marburg

Amöneburg

About 16 km east of Marburg, the small town of Amöneburg sits on a 365 m basalt cone — the northernmost outcrop of the Vogelsberg volcanic area — high above the Ohm and the farmland of the Amöneburg basin. St Boniface founded a monastery cell here in 721 and added a church dedicated to St Michael in 732; around 1120 it passed to the archbishops of Mainz, who kept Amöneburg as an outpost within Hessian territory for centuries.

On top: the neo-Gothic church of St John the Baptist, whose 14th-century tower wears a Baroque cap, the ruins of the castle (remains of the keep, cellars and a large outer ward with towers) and a town wall that still largely encloses some 12 hectares — a path along its outside opens wide views over the countryside. The Museum Amöneburg, in the former brewhouse at Schulgasse 1, covers prehistory, the medieval fortifications and local excavation finds.

Plausdorf Manor (Schloss Plausdorf)

On the north-eastern edge of the Amöneburg municipality, where the little river Klein feeds the estate’s millrace, stands one of the region’s most romantic houses. The manor house was built in the Renaissance style in 1565 for the von Schwalbach family; the water mill probably dates from the mid-16th century (mill and farm are first mentioned in 1463). Between 1901 and 1914 Fritz and Else von Goldammer turned the farm, partly from ruins, into a historicist country house set in a park of about 5 hectares.

Schloss Plausdorf is privately owned — today shared between two families descended from the Goldammers — inhabited, and is not open to the public. It can be seen from the outside only: a public forest path runs about 100 m south of the house, and in winter there are views through the open fence. The former VisitMarburg.com presented this fairy-tale manor as an “iconic film location”.

Rauischholzhausen Palace

In 1873 the industrialist Ferdinand Eduard Stumm bought the estate of the Rau von Holzhausen family, had the old moated castle demolished and commissioned the architect Carl Schäfer to build a new manor house on a nearby hill. Palace and park were created together between 1871 and 1876; the English landscape park of about 32 hectares is the work of Heinrich Siesmayer, creator of Frankfurt’s Palmengarten.

The palace has belonged to the State of Hesse since 1945. From 1949 to 2023 the University of Giessen used it as a conference and training centre; since October 2023 the state’s building and property agency has run it, keeping that use.

Frauenberg Castle Ruins

On the Frauenberg (379 m), a basalt cone about 6 km south of Marburg, Duchess Sophie of Brabant — daughter of St Elisabeth and mother of the young Landgrave Henry I of Hesse — had a castle built around 1250 to protect Marburg, face the Mainz stronghold of Amöneburg and watch the old “Lange Hessen” road. It is first documented in 1296.

Its importance faded in the 15th century; the castle was destroyed in 1470 and again in 1489, partly lived in until 1528 and then used as a quarry by the surrounding villages. A seven-metre inner ring wall, an outer wall and traces of the moats remain — and a fine panorama over the Ebsdorfer Grund and the Amöneburg basin.

Spiegelslust Tower (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm)

Marburg’s own lookout stands on the Lahnberge at about 372 m: the 36 m Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm, inaugurated on 2 September 1890 and named after the first German emperor. Everyone calls it the Spiegelslustturm, after the neighbouring inn that grew from grounds laid out from 1821 by the student Werner von Spiegel. A first tower, begun in 1874, collapsed in a storm in March 1876; the present one was reinforced with buttresses.

167 steps lead to the top and a panorama over Marburg, the castle and the Elisabethkirche. Historic paths, some with old sandstone steps, climb up from the Ortenberg district. The tower can be climbed only while its café is open: March–October Mon and Wed–Sat 13:00–19:00, Sun 11:00–19:00; November–February until 18:00; closed on Tuesdays.

The Turmcafé in our eat & drink guide →

St Elisabeth’s Well (Elisabethbrunnen)

In the fields of the Cappel district, on the Elisabethpfad pilgrim route (part of the Way of St James), a temple front of sandstone guards an ancient spring. Landgrave Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg had it built in 1596 by Eberhard Baldewein as a memorial to St Elisabeth, ancestor of his house, after her chapel here had been pulled down during the Reformation; tradition holds that Elisabeth herself often came to this spring.

The two-storey Renaissance façade, modelled on an antique temple, has Doric columns below, Ionic columns above and a gable with the arms of Louis IV and his wives; a Latin inscription praises the spring and the saint. A 2013 restoration reopened the view towards Amöneburg. The water is not drinking water, and the city advises against drinking it.

Sources: Wikipedia (Amöneburg) · Wikipedia (Schloss Plausdorf) · Wikipedia (Schloss Rauischholzhausen) · Wikipedia (Burgruine Frauenberg) · Wikipedia (Spiegelslustturm) · spiegelslustturm.de · Wikipedia (Elisabethbrunnen). Checked 9 October 2026.