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We are starting our tour here at this place because here used to be the town gate. It was broken down in 1862. Your ancestors knew this very well and they knew another building also, which broke down a few years before: the pallas of the old castle of the counts of Katzenelnbogen.

…Vorburg: Parts of these buildings belong to the old castle, which was built in the 11^th century. We have a document with the year 1228 with the name of the first count of Lichtenberg . It was count dieter IV.  of Katzenelnbogen and his great grandchild received the town rights for Lichtenberg.

Well, the counts of Katzenelnbogen died out in 1479 and the landgraves of Hesse received the castle. And they made the whole complex stronger for fighting. They built the big tower and the surrounding wall around Lichtenberg.

In 1570 Landgrave Georg the I. of Hesse-Darmstadt decided to build the new castle because he wanted to marry and the castle was a kind of insurance for his wife. Georg the I. was only 23 years old.