Burg Wallrabenstein, Medieval castle ruins in Wallrabenstein, Germany

Burg Wallrabenstein is a medieval castle whose stone foundations display a shield-shaped layout with a hexagonal corner tower and a cylindrical tower structure. The remnants of the main tower and preserved wall sections still define the appearance of this historical fortification.

Count Walram IV of Nassau-Idstein commissioned this castle around 1390 to defend the northeastern border of his Nassau territory. The fortress was also meant to protect the nearby settlement of Holtzhausen and served as a strategic defense point for the region.

The castle's name comes from Count Walram IV of Nassau-Idstein, who called himself Walrab(e) in documents and began building around 1390. Residents of nearby Holtzhausen moved to settle directly by the castle, and the settlement that grew there took the name Wallrabenstein.

The ruin stands on a steep hill at 219 m above sea level, so the approach is uphill and difficult for people with reduced mobility. The double outer wall, which threatened to topple, was renovated before winter 2007 at a cost of about €100,000, shared by the district, municipality, monument protection and owner. Inside the shield wall a half-timbered storage shed now stands.

The shield wall is not uniform: it is 2.55 m thick on the southwest and southeast attack sides, but thinner on the northeast stretch. The main tower, rising 14 m, has 2 m walls yet a diameter of only 6.5 m, small for a bergfried, and its ground floor was reached only through an upper round-arched doorway.