Barony of Bilstein

The Barony of Bilstein (German: Herrschaft Bilstein) was a dynastic lordship with extensive estates in the region of the present German states of Hesse and Thuringia.

It probably began with Count Wigger I, whose name is recorded from 967 to 981 AD as having extensive comital rights and estates in the Germarmark march on the middle Werra (the area of Frieda and Eschwege), at Hainich (Bad Langensalza, Schlotheim, Mühlhausen and Oberdorla) and in the Obereichsfeld. The fragmented estates of Count Wigger extended via Dornburg an der Saale as far as the area of Zeitz, where he is mentioned from 965–981 as the Margrave of Zeitz. Along with the Ekkehardiners, the counts of Kevernburg, the counts of Schwarzburg and counts of Weimar the Wiggers were a powerful comital family in Thuringia in the 10th to 12th centuries.

From about 1130, their descendants called themselves after their family seat, Bilstein Castle, in the Höllental valley west of Albungen, today a village in the borough of Eschwege. This castle had probably been built by them around 1100. In this period they came into military conflict with the counts of Northeim, who around 1105/1110 had defeated Count Rugger (Rüdiger) I of Bilstein and destroyed the first, still weakly fortified Bielstein Castle. His successor, Rugger II of Bilstein, asserted himself with the construction of the new Bilstein Castle and began to develop the land around the castle, the woods on the Hoher Meißner, as, as "clearing demesne. For this purpose he also founded Germerode Abbey, which became the family abbey of the dynasty. The descriptive family name, the Bilsteiners, was later appended even to the early members of the house.

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