Merenberg

Merenberg is a municipality in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany.

Merenberg lies on the southern edge of the Westerwald between the district seat of Limburg and Weilburg.

Merenberg borders in the north on the community of Mengerskirchen, in the east on the community of Löhnberg, in the south on the town of Weilburg, in the southwest on the community of Beselich, and in the west on the community of Waldbrunn (all in Limburg-Weilburg).

The market community of Merenberg consists of the five centres of Merenberg, Barig-Selbenhausen, Allendorf, Reichenborn and Rückershausen.

On both the Almerskopf and the Höhburg are found remnants of settlements from La Tène times.

In Merenberg stands the family castle of the House of Merenberg, a noble family in the 12th and 13th centuries. In connection with this family, the community had its first documentary mention in 1129. In 1290, Merenberg was granted town rights and weekly market rights by King Rudolph I, whereupon a town wall was built. In 1634 the castle was destroyed, and since then it has stood, as a ruin, as Merenberg’s landmark.

In the early 19th century, Merenberg was stripped of town rights. In the late 19th century, the House of Nassau named the children from Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau's marriage to Pushkin's daughter the “Counts of Merenberg”.

In the course of administrative reform in Hesse, the formerly autonomous communities of Allendorf, Barig-Selbenhausen, Merenberg, Reichenborn and Rückershausen, which had all belonged to the old Oberlahnkreis (district), merged into the new collective community of Merenberg.