Hohenlimburg Castle, Medieval castle and history museum in Hohenlimburg, Germany

Hohenlimburg is a hilltop castle above the Lennetal in Hagen, largely preserved in its medieval form. A half-timbered wing with red-brown beams and six white-framed windows stands beside a round stone tower with a steep conical roof; a stone building with a grey hipped roof and a projecting half-timbered bay window adjoins it. The main wing curves along the wooded slope, with a round turret at one end and a taller conical-roofed tower at the other; below lies a rectangular garden divided into four grass plots by pale gravel paths.

Count Dietrich I of Altena-Isenberg built the castle on a spur above the Lenne valley around 1240; it was first documented in 1242 and became the seat of the Limburg counts. In 1288 Count Eberhard I of the Mark took it, and in 1300 the knight Sobbo de Svirte seized it before returning it to the counts of the Mark. From 1592 to 1807/08 castle and county belonged to the counts of Bentheim-Tecklenburg, who remodelled it in the mid-16th and early 18th centuries.

The castle's name comes from the county of Limburg, whose seat it was until 1807/08; the surrounding town took the name Hohenlimburg. The museum founded in 1927 closed in 2002, and its exhibits went to the Historical Centre of Hagen. The castle now hosts ceremonies and weddings, and the Schwarze Hand, a mummified hand kept in the tower, is shown in an exhibition.

The castle is not open for regular sightseeing; since the Hohenlimburg museum closed in 2002, its exhibits went to the Historical Centre of Hagen. The complex is now used only for events such as weddings, so visits depend on the programme of the princely family.

Wilhelm Böing, the father of Boeing founder, came from Hohenlimburg before emigrating to the United States in 1868. This connection to an internationally known company remains part of the place's local history today.