The oldest part of the castle is the mighty tower. Its origin goes back to the thirteenth century.
In that time it had to protect the road "running through the valley, a by-road of the Wuerzburg
highway, which already in the middle-ages was the most important road through the Spessard.
The main part of the tower was built by the knight Hamann Echter in the early fifteenth century
(1419-1432). It now contains the family-archives and the library. The oldest document you find in it
is of the thirteenth century.