Top 20 Castles around Bad Abbach

Unfortunately the tower was closed

Abbach Castle Ruins Ahabach Castle was first mentioned in a document on May 6, 973. Abbach Castle is believed to have been the birthplace of Emperor Henry II, but this cannot be proven. On November 1, 1007, Emperor Henry II donated the site to the Bishopric of Bamberg, which he founded. Abbach Castle was taken over by the Wittelsbachs around 1200; at that time, the Wittelsbachs had also succeeded in gaining control of the Danube toll at Abbach. The castle was allegedly destroyed by the Bishop of Bamberg when he handed Abbach over to the Prüfening Monastery. However, Duke Ludwig I had it rebuilt in 1224 and compensated the monastery with Königswiesen near Regensburg and Matting. Subsequently, the Duke significantly expanded his holdings in the Abbach district. In 1297, Abbach was burned down during a feud between the Bavarian Dukes Otto and Stephan and the citizens of Regensburg. Afterwards, the castle, which served only as the steward's residence, was rebuilt on a smaller scale. In 1564, neglect of the surrounding wall and the castle itself was noted. A land register from 1586 contains the following note: The castle has a wide courtyard, in the center of which stands a round tower that has been roofless for many years, as well as a deep well that does not always provide water. The strong surrounding walls have partially collapsed. During the Thirty Years' War, in 1632 and 1634, the citizens of Abbach and the surrounding area fled to the castle and defended it. In 1705, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Abbach surrendered to the Austrians without a fight. Between 1740 and 1745, Abbach was repeatedly sacked as a result of the War of the Austrian Succession. Demolition work on the castle buildings began in 1803; by 1832, almost all buildings except the keep had been removed. In April 1945, the Heinrichsturm (St. Henry's Tower) was hit by bombs because it had housed a German Wehrmacht observation post. The tower, which is now accessed via a steel staircase above the old high entrance, was renovated in the early 1980s. The 27-meter-high late Romanesque tower has a four-and-a-half-meter-thick rubble masonry. Inside the tower are two stacked octagonal chambers with helmet vaults. Remains of the castle's ring wall have also been preserved. Source: Excerpts from www.wikipedia.de

A hilltop castle stood here, built in 973. Between 1803 and 1832, everything except the keep was demolished.

The Höhlenburg Loch > a geotope The Höhlenburg Loch is one of only two cave castles in Bavaria (the second is in Stein an der Traun in Upper Bavaria). The lower, flatter part of the castle complex lies in slab dolomites belonging to the Velburg Horizon. The steep wall, at the base of which the (residential) caves appear, is formed by mass dolomites of the Middle Franconian Alb Formation. Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU). https://www.umweltatlas.bayern.de/standortauskunft/rest/reporting/sb_geotope/generate?additionallayerfieldvalue=375A026

Köfering Castle The first moated castle on the Pfatter was probably built in the 12th century. The Köfering family was first mentioned in the middle of the 12th century. Around 1300, the castle was owned by Eckprecht von Haidau, who gave it to the Bishopric of Regensburg in 1307 in order to receive it as a fief from the bishop. Other owners of the castle were Otto Zenger, Albrecht von Abensberg, Heinrich Nothaft von Mangolding and Scheuer. In 1427, Dietrich von Stauf took over the castle in Köfering by exchange. On December 26, 1491, the Köfering fortress was besieged and destroyed by the Bavarian Duke Albrecht IV with 1,000 soldiers during the Löwler League uprising, in which the castle owner Hieronymus von Stauf took part. The Counts of Lerchenfeld have owned the moated castle since 1569. The castle was damaged in the Thirty Years' War and rebuilt in its current form from 1680 to 1720. Renovation began in 1980/81. The moated castle is an irregular, baroque, three-storey three-wing complex with mansard hipped roofs, an entrance projection with portal, ground floor arcades and a staircase with a mansard hipped roof. The White Hall with inlaid parquet and the chapel are worth seeing. The castle complex consists of a central projection, to which only a north wing is connected. To the west there is another wing with protruding corner projections, and to the south the one-storey former stable building is attached. A three-arched stone bridge leads over the walled moat, which is still preserved, and is the only access to the castle. Source: Excerpts from www.wikipedia.de

Eichhofen Castle One of the special features of Bavarian country castles is the so-called hammer castles, which were built from the 16th to the 18th century, primarily in the Upper Palatinate, as representative residential buildings for hammer mill owners. Eichhofen Castle is one of these. Eichhofen Castle was built around 1560 by the influential Sauerzapf family as a late Gothic, rectangular and three-storey gabled building, with stepped gables facing north and south. There is a Romanesque chapel on the west side. In 1866, the property was redesigned in a neo-Gothic style, and the onion domes were probably removed. The eaves side building on a slope is characterized by a protruding tower on the northeast side and a bay window on the southeast side. Inside, the generous three-room layout from the time of construction has been preserved. The hallway on the ground floor is a vaulted corridor, with rooms on two sides. The late Gothic planked beam ceiling and the solid fittings from the 18th century have also been preserved. There is a pavilion from the 19th century in the garden. The castle was pretty much destroyed in the Thirty Years' War and rebuilt in the middle of the 16th century. The former iron hammer ceased operations in 1848 and the grain mills built by the Regensburg wholesaler Wilhelm von Neuffer have been idle since 1970. The Eichhofen Castle Brewery, however, which is run independently by the Schönharting family, can look back on a brewing tradition spanning more than 400 years. According to even older documents, the brewery is one of the oldest breweries in Bavaria, as the brewery was mentioned as early as the beginning of 1300. In recent years, the castle and the surrounding farm buildings have been extensively renovated. With the establishment of a workshop and exhibition space for artists on the upper floor of the former mill, Eichhofen also became a small, private cultural center that has been able to present a series of exhibitions to the public in recent years. The castle is listed in the Nittendorf community's monument list as a protected architectural monument and is now privately owned by the family of Dr. Günther and Ingeborg Schönharting. Source: Excerpts from www.wikipedia.de / Castles tell stories... - Book & Art Publishers Oberpfalz

Loch Castle Ruins Loch Castle was probably built by the Rammelsteiners, the lords of a nearby estate. They were first mentioned in the 12th century and were ministerials of the burgraves of Regensburg and later of the Bavarian dukes. Their castle in Loch was probably only built after 1300 to protect an iron hammer mill in the Laber Valley. A "Hugo vom Loch" is mentioned in a fief book of the Regensburg monastery of St. Emmeram at this time. Jakob Rammelsteiner vom Loch was district judge in Sulzbach in 1388 and court master to the Duke of Ingolstadt, Ludwig the Bearded, in 1413. His descendants Dietrich and Wolfgang took part in the knights' revolts of the Böckler and Löwler, but this did not cause any lasting damage to the family. After 1500, the lords of the castle also gained control of the Schönhofen and Eichhofen castles. When the last Rammelsteiner Sebastian died in 1556, the complex passed to his nephew Wolf Heinrich Sauerzapf in 1573 after long inheritance disputes. The Sauerzapf - a very successful family of hammer lords - gave up their seat in 1625 at the latest and resided in Schönhofen. In 1714, the last Sauerzapf Christoph bequeathed Loch Castle, already in ruins, to the Carthusian monastery of Prüll in Regensburg. The former Loch Castle, although it remained historically insignificant, offers many interesting features. The shape of the cave castle is extremely rare. The entrance was in the north, where a moat, still clearly visible today, separates the castle terrace. A gatehouse with a drawbridge can be clearly seen in the 1718 depiction, as can the residential buildings, which lean against the steep wall in the east in front of several cave rooms. At the southern end of the terrace stands the well-preserved keep, which is 23 meters high. It has 2 m thick walls, a toilet bay and large windows on the top floor. The structural design of the keep, which was built from roughly hewn rubble stone and was designed to be relatively comfortable with large windows and a toilet bay, clearly points to the 14th century. Clearly visible remains of built-in features have been preserved in the largest cave. It is surprising that such an uncomfortable and defensively unfavourable location was chosen for a castle in the late Middle Ages. It was extremely vulnerable to attack from the plateau above. The reason for the choice of location was probably solely the nearby hammer mill. Source: Excerpts from www.burgenseite.de

The castle is gigantic. It is not open to the public. In winter there is a Christmas market with admission.