Hohenlimburg Castle

Hohenlimburg Castle is one of the few hilltop castles in Westphalia still largely preserved in its original architectural form. It is located at the entrance to the Lenne Valley, which has other castles and noble residences on its way to the Sauerland. The castle is part of the Stoppelberg landscape conservation area.

Today, the outer castle and main castle and especially the palace, the gatehouses, the ring walls and the keep from the 13th and 14th centuries as well as various residential and work buildings from the 16th to 18th centuries are preserved. A famous exhibit is the deliberately mummified "Black Hand". According to legend, Count Dietrich von Isenberg-Limburg had this hand cut off his son because he had beaten his mother. In fact, it is a medieval or early modern bodily mark (here: a dead man's hand) that was cut off, for example, from murder victims to preserve evidence. Cut-off hands were also a sign of a truce, which was concluded between the parties after a feud, for example. Such legal agreements are also documented several times for Limburg in the late Middle Ages. The location of the "Black Hand", the old archive of the tower destroyed by a lightning strike in 1811, supports both theses. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the hand dates from the 16th century. The year 1546 plus/minus 60 years was determined, a more exact dating is not possible. Scientists found that it is a right hand, probably that of an adult male. All the finger end links are missing, as well as part of the carpal bones. A remnant cord on the thumb indicates an older label, according to the researcher. What the scientists did not find were chop marks, cuts, diseases or ulcers. This rather indicates that it is the hand of a victim, not a perpetrator.