Castle Dillenburg, in the provincial town of

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen (region), Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German-N ...

Hesse-Nassau The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944. Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the p ...

, is situated on a hill (elevation 958 feet) above the Dill river, 25 miles northwest from

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

on the Giessen-

Troisdorf Troisdorf () is a city in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (district), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Troisdorf is located approximately 22 kilometers south of Cologne and 13 kilometers north east of Bonn. Division of the city Troisdorf consi ...

railway line. The main building of the old castle was deconstructed in 1760 after suffering fire from cannon damage in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

. Today the hill above the town still has the ruins of the 17th-century fortifications of the old schloss Dillenburg, but nothing at all remains of the original fortifications, which were mostly wood. It was founded by Count Henry the Rich of Nassau, about the year 1240, and later became the birthplace of

Prince William of Orange William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from ...

in 1533. Due to the effects of the

Protestant reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, in the town below is the (since 1530) Evangelical church but formerly Johanniskirche from 1491, with the vault of the princes of Nassau-Dillenburg.

Wilhelmsturm

In 1872 Princess Marianne, the daughter of King Willem I, helped finance the creation of a new lookout tower, Wilhelmsturm, which also houses the Oranje-Nassaumuseum. The museum commemorates

William the Silent William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...

who plotted his rebellion against the Spanish Netherlands from his home on this spot. The tower is an area landmark and is one of the points along the

Orange Route The Orange Route ( nl, Oranje-Route, german: Oranier-Route) is a holiday route, that runs from Amsterdam in the Netherlands through North and Central Germany and returns to Amsterdam. It is 2,400 kilometres long and crosses the Netherlands and nine ...

and

Rothaarsteig The Rothaarsteig is a 154.80 km long hiking trail along the crest of the Rothaargebirge mountain range in Germany in the border region between the states of North Rhine-Westphalia (NW) and Hesse (HE). It was opened in 2001. Overview Th ...

References

External links

Dillenburg museum website
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