Rodensteiner Schloss, Cultural heritage château in Groß-Umstadt, Germany.
Rodensteiner Schloss, also called Rodensteiner Hof, is a former noble court on the northern edge of Groß-Umstadt's old town, one of the town's seven former aristocratic seats. The main building is rendered sandstone masonry with half-timbering above, a flat-arched gate with a side door, and a two-storey hexagonal stair tower with a stone spiral staircase at the rear. It is now a seniors' residence.
First documented in 1409, when Count Palatine Ruprecht III granted the estate to Sibolt Schelm von Bergen as a free fief. In 1454 the brothers Hans and Eberhart Schelm divided it into a front and rear house; in 1465 a hexagonal stair tower with a stone spiral staircase was added. Anna Schelm brought it by marriage to Otto von Boineburg in 1540, who largely rebuilt it; from 1585 to 1671 it passed to the von Rodenstein, who gave it its name.
The name comes from the von Rodenstein family, owners from 1585 until the male line died out in 1671. The alliance coat of arms of the Schelme von Bergen and von Boineburg, with a date above it, survives on the arch beside the former main entrance. The building later served as a Catholic Kollektur, a priest's and teacher's residence, and from 1924 to 1934 housed a cigarette factory.
The building is a seniors' residence and not open to visitors; the former noble court is seen from the street on the northern edge of the old town, about 50 metres north of the Wambolt'sches and Pfälzer Schlösser. Look for the flat-arched gateway with hand door and the two coats of arms with segmental gable on the street facade. The city's advisory office for women's and seniors' affairs is housed inside.
The building is not a visitable castle but a municipal seniors' residence with a meeting place; it is neither assisted living nor a care home. Since 1909 it has belonged to the town, and from 1924 to 1934 a cigarette factory was housed in it. A town counselling office also sits in the building, half of the post devoted to work for older residents.
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