Laurenburg

Laurenburg
Coat of arms
Laurenburg
Location of Laurenburg within Rhein-Lahn-Kreis district
Coordinates: 50°19′56″N 7°54′41″E / 50.33222°N 7.91139°E / 50.33222; 7.91139Coordinates: 50°19′56″N 7°54′41″E / 50.33222°N 7.91139°E / 50.33222; 7.91139
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Rhein-Lahn-Kreis
Municipal assoc.	Diez
Government
• Mayor	Ulrich Kuhmann
Area
• Total	2.16 km2 (0.83 sq mi)
Elevation	100 m (300 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	320
• Density	150/km2 (380/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	56379
Dialling codes	06439
Vehicle registration	EMS
Website	http://www.laurenburg.de

Laurenburg is a municipality in the Rhein-Lahn district of Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. The town, a health resort situated in the lower Lahn River valley, belongs to the Diez Municipal Association.

Laurenburg Castle is first mentioned in 1093 in the purported founding charter of the Maria Laach Abbey (a document some historians consider fabricated). A "Comes Dudo de Lurenburch", believed to be Count Dudo-Henry of Laurenburg (ca. 1060 - ca. 1123), is listed fifth on the witness list. Count Dudo, considered the founder of the aristocratic House of Nassau, is thought to be the builder of the castle (perhaps with his father Robert, the Archbishop of Mainz’s Vogt in Siegerland).

The seat of the House of Nassau was moved, under Dudo-Henry's sons Robert I and Arnold I, to Nassau Castle around 1124. The original castle in Laurenburg was destroyed in the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) and remains a ruin. The donjon of the castle today houses a military museum.

After the removal of the ruling House of Nassau from Laurenburg, the castle was administered by a Burgmann of Nassau, whose descendants are still named "von Laurenburg" today. Among them, the families of the Loeners and the Buchers are well-known today. In 1643 Reichsgraf Peter Melander of Holzappel, an imperial field marshal during the Thirty Years' War, acquired Laurenburg, along with the greater area known as the Esterau.