Westerburg is a small town of roughly 6,000 inhabitants in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is named after the castle built on a hill above the mediaeval town centre (Burg is German for “castle”)
The town lies in easternmost Rhineland-Palatinate, 4 km from the boundary with Hesse. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Westerburg – a kind of collective municipality – which administers the town and 24 surrounding municipalities.
The former Ortsgemeinden – communities belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – of Gershasen, Wengenroth and Sainscheid belong to the town of Westerburg.
The earliest witnesses to human beings settling in what is now Westerburg are some urns that point to cremations performed here about 700 BC.
The earliest documentary mention of the constituent community of Wengenroth is dated 9 November 879 from the time when Gebhard, Count of the Lahngau donated holdings here to the St. Severus Monastery in Gemünden.
The first time that Westerburg…