Burg Dorfelden

Niederdorfelden, Germany, Germany

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Burg Dorfelden is the picturesque ruin of a 13th-century moated castle in Niederdorfelden, Main-Kinzig district, Hesse, Germany, built on an artificial hill surrounded by a Nidder River-fed moat and accessible via field paths north of the old town core.

First documented in 1234 during an inheritance division between Reinhard III and Heinrich von Dorfelden—successors to earlier Buchen lords—it changed hands among Hanau, Falkenstein, and Saxony families, serving as a strategic stop en route to Frankfurt's imperial elections before declining by the 15th century and partial decay in the Thirty Years' War.

Preserved features include northern/northwestern ring wall sections, inner building remnants, a buckelquader round tower from the late 12th century, and a collapsed eastern tower base, now privately owned with a farm since 1717 as an atmospheric hiking landmark.