Top 20 Caves in Landkreis Regensburg

Hilltop castle built between the 12th and 14th centuries Used until the 16th century https://www.schwarze-laber.de/freizeit-kultur/burgen-schloesser/burgruine-loch

At the foot of the castle, on the bridge over the Black Laber River, there is a sign erected by the Friends of Loch Castle. A photo is attached to the highlight. Here are the links to short YouTube videos explaining parts of the castle: YouTube Channel https://youtube.com/@foerderkreisburgruineloch6645 The Cave https://youtu.be/7CmBjSyYRPk Castle Ruins https://youtu.be/bVxd4fSuqOU Keep https://youtu.be/kYCP3DWWLNM

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

Beautiful rock formations in the forest

Beautiful view back over the Vils

Rock formations are now majestically visible in March. They soon disappear into the sea of leaves and are then almost invisible again—unfortunately!

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 "house without a roof", as it is officially called, is a cave dwelling that is still in use in the Upper Palatinate town of Kallmünz. The cave dwelling is located north of the Vils at the southern end of the Schlossberg, on which the Kallmünz castle ruins stand. The entrance is set back from Vilsgasse at the foot of a 20-meter-high limestone wall of the Schlossberg, and access leads between the listed residential buildings at Vilsgasse 26 and Vilsgasse 28. The house consists of a natural cave in the dolomite rock, the opening of which is closed off by a plastered wall with a door and windows. Inside there is a hallway, a living room, two storage rooms fitted into rock niches and a historic smokehouse. The oldest known mention of the cave dwelling can be found in a document kept in the land registry archive in Amberg with the year 1707. In the 19th century it was also known as the "house under the rock". In 1908 it was sold to the owner of the blacksmith's shop across the street, and it remains in his family's possession. The last permanent resident left the house in 1937 because he had developed rheumatism due to the damp cave air.